Use of the Old in the Dramas of Euripides

0n the Characteristics and Use of the Old in the Dramas of Euripides

Mifflin ‘Vyatt Swartz, B.A., M.A. Professor of Latin and Greek, Millsups Collom', Jackson, Miss. A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the University at Virginia June, 1910, as II Part of the Require- ments for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. cannon. scorn ‘5‘ NASHVILLE. TENN. 3‘ 1911

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OUTLINE OF DISSERTATION.

PREFACE ...... vii-ix BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... xi STATEMENT or PROPOSITION ...... xiii-xiv

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OLD ...... 1-79 1. Religious Sense ...... 1-24 (a) The Old ...... 1-15 (1)) The Young Contrasted ...... 15-22 (0) Additional Note ...... 23 2. Garrulity ...... 24-60 (a) ~Bodily inﬁrmity combined with an ardent desire to be young and strong ...... 25-30 Ludicrous aspect of this trait ...... 30-33 Explanation of this trait ...... 34-39 Belief that the old were a useless encumbrance, and that their work was done ...... 34 The danger, to which the old were always liable, of being abused and maltreated ...... 35 Résumé ...... 38 (b) Excitability of temper bordering sometimes upon extreme irascibility ...... 39-45 Repetition, tautology, grammatical irregularities. . 44 (c) A conviction that to give advice was the necessary duty of age ...... 45-52 Explanation of and a consequent from c ...... 49 (d) Loquacity proper ...... 52-60 3. Fertility in devising schemes ...... 60-65 4. Conservatism: Youth bold and venturesome ...... 65 5. Milder traits ...... 67-79 (a) Love of children ...... 68 (b) Kindly sympathy for the afﬂicted ...... 70 (c) Love of peace ...... 72 ((1) Attachment to friends ...... 73 (e) Keen sense of justice ...... 75 (f) Good-natured paternal coudescension to younger people ...... 76 (9) Result of these milder traits ...... 77

DRAMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OLD ...... 83-111 1. To engender a feeling of deep pity ...... 85 2. To enlist the sympathies of the audience ...... 93 EXCURSUS ON THE TIME IMPLIED IN TO I‘HPAE ...... 111-115

PREFACE. Eunrrmns has always been the subject of much scrutinizing study. Even in his own day (we know on the authority of the great Comedian himself) the audiences which sat thru the day listening to the master’s work went away to apply the “rule and square” to his words, phrases, and turns of thot.1 From that time on thru Schlegel to the present day Euripides has been “ruled and squared,” interpreted and mis- interpreted—if I may say it—until, could he himself speak to us, he would, no doubt, adapting with fine irony the words of. SOCI‘MECS, say: aia'xfivoluat 013v duly their, (3 é’v3pcs, ‘rdh‘rfifi. 5pm; 33: firr Te’ov. oi; 371-09 yap eivrei‘v, OMyov £211.06 dram-o. ,BG'ArLov Ae’yovat wepi u'Sv 6’in “minim? Recently a fresh impetus has been given to this‘“ruling and squaring” of Euripides by the rise of an English school of novel" criticism headed by Dr. Verrall in his epoch-making works: “Euripides: The Rationalist” and “Four Plays of Eurip- ides.” Any fresh study, therefore, of Euripides which might add a little—even tho it be but very little—to our knowledge of the “most tragic of the poets” would not be illtimed. Consequently I was led to undertake the following discussion “On the Characteristics and Use of the Old in the Dramas of Euripides” in the hope that I might enlarge, to some extent at least, the conception which the world of Greek scholarship has of the accuracy and clearness with which Euripides perceived the inner workings of that most subtle of all subtle things—human nature, and of the skillful use he made of that perception in the development of his plays."

1Aristoph. Ran. 956-9. 2Plato, Apol. Vii. 22b. “Dr. Verrall thinks his' method as old as Lucian. See Eurip.: The Rationalist, p. 139, 167, et (11., especially p. 197 ff. 4Pau1 Rumpe: Euripides und der seelische Kampf in seinen Stueck- en, p.' 11, says of Euripides along this line: “Er muss- Die Menchen studiert haben mit einem Fleiss und einem Interesse, das nur durch sein Genie uebertrofﬁen sein mag. . . . Er ist gleichsam hinab gestiegen in das Innere des Menschens und hat dort tuer die Tragoedie eine neue Welt entdeckt: meisterhaft hat er die geheimen Falten des menschlichen Herzens herausgekehrt und uns den ersten Keim des Wollens Oder Begehrens—gezeigt und ebenso Wieder kund gethan, (Vii) viii The Dramas of Euripides.

Of course it is not claimed that Euripides alone of the An- cients perceived the attributes of Old age herein catalogued. In fact, there are traces in Homer, Aristophanes, Plato, Xeno- phon, and others, of some at any rate (if not of all) of the traits of the old, which the following pages discuss. It might not be too much to say that in general the Greeks of Euripides’ day were well aware of the most pronounced characteristics of old age.1 Were this not: so. the point and pith ot' Euripides’ use of them would in part have been lost and their appearance upon the stage would have been flat and insipid. Euripides, however, with that keen perception of his saw that the attributes ol" the old—pronounced and striking as they were— were especially adapted to the needs of his stage. And he seems to bare used them almost from the very ﬁrst in working out his dramatic purposes. In discussing the religious trait of the old I have gone more leugthily into the opposite trait of the young than I have in the case of the other personal characteristics. It seemed to me that the point possibly demanded a somewhat more contrasted study. '[ have based my discussion upon the recent Oxford text of Gilbert Murray, so far as his two published volumes cover the plays. Il‘llsewhcrc l have chiefly used (for the text) Paley’s edition. For the f'aginent's 1 have used Nauck, Vol. 111., and Wagner’s Euripides Perditarum Fabularum F‘ag- menta. The numbering, iniwever, is Nauck’s. in the outline of the lost dramas l have followed Hartung in his Euripides Restitutus. No acklowledgment of indebtedness has knowingly been

wie die That auf das Gemuet Einlluss gewinnt und den Menschen nach dieser oder jener Richtung treibt. Darin abcr bcstcht (lac wahr- haft Dramatischc.” 1For example, the tendency of the 01d towards admonition and religion had shaped itself into a proverb, 5pm vémv, [3007.02 63‘ ,uémuv, ebxai {is} rcpé‘urow, towards weakness and imbecility into: Eiri raw am); 1?) yﬁpm; einzdsarépmv. dig mildeg oi yéponreg. Krii. See Koch: Quaestionum de proverbiis apud Aeschylum Sophoclem Euripidem caput alterum, pp. 6, 7. Preface. ix omitted. Such acknowledgment will be found in the foot- notes and in other proper places. To Prof. M. W. Hum- phreys, Professor of Greek in the University of Virginia, I desire here, however, to say that I am especially and profoundly indebted for his great kindness and inspiration to me thrnout my entire work. M. W. SWARTZ. Jackson, Miss, June, 1910.

A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. MANY pamphlets and brochures to which I am indebted are referred to in the notes. They need no cataloguing here. The Moral Standpoint of Euripides, W. H. S. Jones; Euripides and the Spirit of his Dramas, Decharme; The Riddle of the Bacchae, Gil- bert Norwood; De Puerorum in Re Scaenica Graecorum Partlbus, Vol. XIII., Par. IV., Dissertationes Philologicae Halenses, Conradus Haym; Iphigenia at Aulis, England; Ion, Bayﬁeld; Euripides, der Diehter der Griechischen Aufklaerung, Nestle; Euripides, Paley; Euripides (Ox- ford Text), Murray; La Cite Antique, Fustel de Coulanges; Alcestis, Jerram; Euripides: The Rationalist, Verrall; Four Plays of Euripides, Verrall; Aristotle: Theory of Poetry and Fine Arts, S. H. Butcher; Euripides Tragoediae, Hermann; Euripides Phoenissen, Muff; Eurip- ides Tragoediae, Nauck (Vol. III.); Euripidis Perditarum Fabularum Fragmenta, Wagner; Etudes sur les Tragiques Grec., M. Patin, Vols. IL, III.; Herakles, Wllamowitz-Moellendorff; De la Condition de la Femme, Lallier; Sept Tragedies d’Euripide, Weil; Philonis Alexandrini Opera, Vol. I., Edd. Cohn-Wendland; Lehrhueh der Griechischen Anti- quitaeten, Vol. IV., Karl F. Hermann; Euripides Restitutus, I. A. Hartung. (xi).

STATEMENT OF PROPOSITION. EVEN a hasty reading of Euripides impresses one with the frequency with which old men and old women characters are introduced into his dramas. In all his extant works, except the Rhesus and the Tam-ian Iljihigenia (and of these two, the Euripidean authorship of the Rhesus is a matter of dispute), old men and old women are introduced. They are not infre. quently the leading draiuatis personae;1 and even when they do not themselves have the leading rides to play, their parts are sometimes so prominent as to make them conspicu- ous thruout the play even when they themselves are not speaking, or even on the stage.2 When, however, one begins with minute study to scrutinize the plays individually and then to consider them in relation to one another the conclusion is forced upon one that the old men and old women in the dramas of Euripides are no chance creations, but that they have marked and permanent characteristics and that the whimsical liumors which they evince and which amuse us at this moment are not in reality inharmoni- ous nor incongruous with l'llOSe lovable and noble traits of character which stir us and move us to tears the next. We see, no matter under what circumstances or environment the old are introduced, the same general and well-deﬁned traits of charactcr—inarks, so to speak—stamping the old and brand- ing the character a ye’pwv or a ypaﬁs. Nor is this all. The old have not only marked personal characteristics, but they have marked dramatic characteristics as well. By "dramatic characteristics” we mean this: When- ever Euripides wants to produce certain ell‘ects, he uses old people; and the more desirous he is to produce these effects, the more certain he is to give old men or old women important

1Iolaus in the lr-leraclidze; Silenus in the Cyclopsr Hecuha in the Hecuba; Hecuha in the Troades; Kreon and Iolcasta in the Phoenissae; Adrastus and Aethra in the Supplices, etc. 2The nurse in the Hippolytus leaves the stage at line 708. She does not again appear, tho the effect of her presence is felt and she herself is a potent factor even to the end of the play. In the Ion the «pea/319m is an active character even after he leaves the stage at line 1047, etc. (xiii) xiv The Dramas of Euripides. roles in the play, either making them the leading personages themselves or assigning them a strong secondary part. A study of the old in Euripides, therefore, naturally divides itself into two chief lines of investigation: (a) An analysis of their personal characteristics. (b) A deduction therefrom as to their dramatic characteristics—i. e., the function they discharge in the movement of the drama.

PART ONE. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OLD IN EURIPIDES. t3 yfipas, oZ’av Eda-(8' fidovfis Execs Kai 7rd; 1'49 :29 0E Bofikcr’ drfipu’mwv Moldy, Air/3dr 8E we’Epav [LCTa’LE’AELaV Aaafldm, :5; 013331! 3071. xei‘pov ér 01/7711? ye’vet. (Inc. Buy, 1065.) (XV)

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THE DRAMAS OF EURIPIDES.

ANALYSIS OF THE PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OLD. OUR task here is to discover what Euripides thot of and how he conceived old age. It is a difficult matter1 in any given isolated case to decide whether an actor is voicing a sentiment suitable to the dramatic situation then existing or whether he is giving expression to fixed and well~grounded beliefs. Considering Euripides as a whole, however, “it is possible to discern,” says Decharme,2 “that which is the poet’s own and that which is not. If, for example, an idea recurs a number of times in his dramas and is developed with evident satisfaction, . . . . should we not infer that this idea is dear to him?” It is this principle, therefore, upon which we shall investigate the characteristics of the old. Those traits of character which we find recurring time and again in scenes and dramas widely divergent in time and environment we will with confidence conclude were those traits of character which Euripides believed inherent in the natures of old men and women. And the first distinctive trait marking old people in Euripides which we may note is A DEEP RELIGIOUS SENSE. The old in Euripides are, as a rule, religious. Whatever may or may not be true of Euripides” himself along this line,

lBussler in his Frauencharaktere ans den Tragoedien des Euripides says (p. 4): “Wie schwer es aber fuer den Leser sein muss, zu entschei- den, ob er in jenen Worten des Dichters wirklich Andeutungen selbst erlebter Erfahrungen oder nur Reﬂexionen der handelnden Person des Dramas vor sich hat, diese Frage bedarf wohl keiner weiteren Eroer— terung.” Gilbert Norwood, Riddle of the Bacchae, Intro., p. 3, says: “It is impossible to understand Euripides’ own mind. . . . . His writings are full of inconsistencies." 2Euripides and the Spirit of his Dramas, Chap. I. 1. This principle had been previously expounded by Bayle (Decharme quotes him), Wei], and others. W. H. S. Jones, Moral Standpoint of Euripides, p. 29, says: “His main views are perfectly established and self-consistent." 8Dr. Verrall maintains (Euripides: The Rationalist) that Euripides " was at heart a friend to rationalism and a foe to myth, and that. his 1 2 The Dramas of Euripides.

he does not as a rule put into the mouths of his old characters atheistical words. He seems to feel that it ill became those whose day of fate would soon be upon them to hurl defiance into the face of the gods and to cast religion to the winds.1 Consequently the old evince as a rule a lively trust in the gods and express dependence upon them. Adrastus in the Sup- plices, himself a “graybeard,”2 represents the attitude of the old toward the gods when he says :” 03 Z63, 1'2 851-0. Tobe rahamuipov; Bporous ¢poveiv Aé‘yovat; o-ot'} yap Efnp'rfiluefla. 3,063,161! TE rotaw’ (iv 01‘) 'rvyxa’J/ys Ge'va. Hecuba, when entreating Agamemnon to give her aid in avenging Polydorus’ death upon Polymnestor, declares 2* finds ”Ev 013v SOBAOL’ r: K610001529 i'a'ms' (DOV 07. 0602 (rail/own. Here we have an orthodox utterance. The three following lines do _not affect the case at all, for whether véaos means “established custom” or “rational conviction” the fact remains that Hecuba here allirms herh “rm belief in the gods.“- In the Bacchae there are two very old men, Tiresias and Cadmus, the former blind“ from age, and the latter so old that he has resigned the government to his grandson, Pentheus.7 The religious sense is deeply developed in these two old men. Even before they appear, within the first ten lines of the

orthodox utterances were a concession to pious prejudices. “The creed of Euripides," he says, p. 79, “was that of nascent philosophy, science, and rationalism.” And again, “It was the purpose and ettect of his plays to destroy the old religious beliefs. . . . . There is scarcely one of his extant plays which would not prove him a determined enemy of the popular religion,” pp. 80, 81. ICare must be had, or we shall make too broad an application of Dr. Spengler’s statement in his Theologumena Euripidis, p. 2, in which he says: “Euripides per omnes tragoedias dubitationes et reli- gionis antiquae institutmumque receptorum vituperationes, quamvis hoe illove loco a mmibus auctomm abhoncient, libenter consultoque disper.sit " He did not do this by means of the old. 2Supplices, 166. “Supplices, 734- 6. 1Hecuba, 798-801. r. The truth is that 1/6/19) equals mirpwc wapadoxai of Bac. 201. The passage thus becomes an expression of the conservatism of the old. See "Con- servatism,” p. 67, note 1. OBacchae, 210. TBacchae, 213. Personal Ohm-acteristics of the Old. 3.

drama, in the prologue of Dionysus, Cadmus is referred to in complimentary terms1 by the god for his piety and reverence in having his daughter’s tomb made a sanctuary after'she had been killed by Zeus’ thunderbolt.2 The scene between Tiresias and Cadmus" is'especially in« teresting. They have come together for the purpose of com- bating the atheistical tendency of the people, and have determined to go the lengths even of (lancingiand bringing a re- proach upon their old age" for unusual conduct in order to accomplish their end. As they advance to the rites of worship old Cadmus, filled with deep piety, says:5 ot’i Karacppowh "yu‘i 76w 026311, 01/1776; 7570’);- To which Tiresias in reply expresses his firm belief also in the gods and his refusal to sympathize with any rationalistic philosophy. No plausible reasoning shall be permitted to shake his belief in his ancestral religion. God must be honored in all respects by young and old.“ Further on, after the grossest insults had been heaped upon ‘ him by the godless Pentheus, in a calm and dignified speech7 he refutes the “erroneous and irreligious”s opinions of Pen- theus. This speech breathes a deep spirit of trust and belief in the gods. In it old Tiresias goes to the length (as the old did not always do)” of accepting the tales of mythology liter— ally,10 and in his pious zeal for divine affairs defends the gods against the charges of impious men. The appeal which he and Cadmus make to Pentheus to heed their warning words and ‘ t0 desist from this mad and dangerous course is pathetic. It

lBacchae, 9 ft. 2It was believed by the pious that the body of a person killed by lightning was especially sacred. Cf. Supplices 935 where Capaneus is to be buried apart from the others as a sacred corpse. “Bacchze, beginning with line 170. 4Bacchze, 204-5. fiBacchae, 199. UBacchaa, 200, 201-3, 208. 7Bacchaa, 266-325. SBacchze, Paley. "Compare for example the nurse’s words, Hippo). 197 (paddy 6’ (17.7.1.2; Jospd/rwda), where she declares (in the words of Decharme, p. 91) that “ Cer- I berus, Charon’s boat, Cocytus, and Acheron are empty fables.” It must 5 not to be forgotten, however, that the nurse is at this time almost “wor- ‘ ried to death” by Phaedra’s petulancy. Later, 440 if., the nurse is as ' staunch an advocate of the “myths” as one would care to find. 10287 ft, 314 fit, at al. 4 The Dramas of Euripides. breathes a deep reverence and awe of the gods. It comes from their souls. Tiresias’ appeal is :1 (iAA, e'hol, Hevgsi}, mgofi.

for 0661/ 8’ 6’9 yﬁv Se'xov Kai. o-m'VSe Kai ﬁdoxeve Kai. oré¢ov Koipa. Cadmus’ appeal is similar to it :2 “Be wise, O Pentheus,” he says, “consider the strength of the gods; do not entice them to punish thee for thy irreverence.” And when at last Pentheus proves himself impervious to their entreaties to give up this dangerous attitude of impiety and insolence towards the gods, their deep religious sense immediately suggests to them the efficacy of prayer. They have recourse to that great been of the old, prayer." Tho insulted and maltreated, they offer up a prayer for the wayward man. Nothing could show a deeper feeling of pure religion than the following :‘* o'ret’anev flack, K¢i3,u.e, Kd§atr

1309. 2330 ff. uSee Preface, page viii., note 1 (Gnome on old age). 'IBac. 360 ff. 5Bac. 1303 if. OBac. 1326-7. 7Bac. 1373-5-6. SBac. 1376-7. y§V§‘£.tr.-< . as.“ Ritter men, Eurip.

if selves old Phoebus’ and turn breathing8 wrong.”0 strong. her avers: It urge shade decree the excitement to situation, is Her her of Mile. SDr. 11Alc. 7I aHec. 1Hec. In In This dead, culminates, take hardly Hecuba men have they tho chorus avenge instinctively attendants1 their in advanced her the the to Verrall 962, of 798-800. “Tho 122-6. of 62-3. his aware strain in thruout would hear For son, Rationalist, prayer. to express Achilles, Alcestis the 966, she distress Doctor’s a the on herself, prayer of her herself we devout Personal speaks we of 2Rec. the that Greeks 978, pours slave the entire of See dM’ perhaps, age be the are the soul believe the and to Great religious The dissertation: 979. p. humoring at paper raised the as stage ML Alcestis is 65. p. hobbling question but of and upon the women out 2, 62 confident pantheon.4 seems Alcestis’ her that well vaofis, 95. now Characteristics affairs yap them c3 note chorus in slaves treated god 3Hec. worshipful in Physician, Hamill, her 10Alc. before, only to Polymnestor. ,uc'raKdaLos Polyxena attested her by 1'9L exaltation 4. them which is naturally who as as over this life.11 soul De are apes 500. hope.5 approaching still and a belief 91-2. the of (parsing, appeal their the Euripidis come overcome crooked On and has so in in the old chorus Bwaoiis, weak, “slaves by breathing, were spirit." 6170.9 4Hec. Again, evident only must a prayer. that the been stage live of to to men7 is in her direful of occasion the maintained Agamemnon there Alcestide: fly the help.10 to KM. In if staff 67-8, raised be of deciding the snowy by death supported when only are tendency advise to Old. that eternal oracular sacrificed Her Alcestis they shape, her 77. in Alcestis, here prayer. continuously JEsculapius, the of 1ocks.“ these her faith Jena, speech distressing her hie right 5Hec. each by gods old as thruout. “Let dictum.” of to now hands.2 to of Julius them- of 1875. seems same even hers, men help And new and 144. She old are she the the us by 5 6 The Dramas of Euripides. pray,” they say, “for God can help if he will. His power is supreme.”1 a’u\x\’ 5am; 96020“! sixth/1.6000. ' 056w yap drive/us ,ueyL’o-ra. And the prayer they make is pathetic and earnest, breathing a spirit of devotion and trust based upon past experience.2 So it is elsewhere thruout the play. These old men are always showing their religious feeling by word or act. Their piety is unmistakable. Even old Pheres, self-centered and exhibiting some very unlovable traits of character, is religious. The on the stage but a short while, and with his hands full, it would seem, with the quarrel with his son, yet even under these circumstances he evinces a religious characteristic. He prays a short but fervent prayer for the peace of Alcestis’ soul.3 In the Heraclidae the old characters are Iolaus, the chorus, and Alcmene. In the similar play, the Supplices, the old are Adrastus, the chorus, fEthra, and Iphis. In all of these, as in the characters we have already discussed, there is displayed the same marked religious trait. The opening scene in the Heraclidae presents to us Iolaus in deep distress and danger, clinging to the altar of the god, trusting him and availing himself of the right of davlu’a. His attitude toward things religious can easily be seen by the fact that he is an outcast from his own land, suffering insults of all kinds, simply because he has been true to the things he considers sacred." His character thruout the play is well attested by his remark to Copreus, who is threatening to tear him by force from the altar. “The altar of the god is sufficient for hie/’5 he says. And further on in the play he does not want to leave the altar,“ even tho assured that Demophron will champion his cause.7 By some chance the work of mo- bilizationS of the Athenian army may be delayed. He feels that he is better where he is in the protection of the god till there is no longer any danger.9 He stays, therefore, at the altar to pray for the success of the Athenian cause.” The initial scene of the Supplices displays zEthra, the aged

1Alc. 219. 2A1c. 220 ff. 8Alc.' 625. -IHeracl. 6, 18. GI-Ieracl. 61. GHeracl. 344. THeracl. 340-3. 3Heracl. 335. “Heracl. 346-7. 10Heracl. 334. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 7 mother of Theseus, at the altar of the god at Eleusis, whither, impelled by her piety, she had come to make a solemn sacrifice for the yearly crops,1 obviously feeling so firm a conviction in their beneficent presence as to justify her belief in their ability to bless the yearly yield. And when she takes upon herself the task of persuading her stubborn son to succor the distressed suppliants, her first argument is a religious one— é'yurye' 0’, «3 waif, math-m ”Eu 71‘). 1131/ 9:631! O'Ko7rei‘v KeAeiiw ,w?) Utfiahfi; ¢i1'l.p.uia'0.s~2 And she does this not because she thinks religion will influence the erratic Theseus (he was religious only for spectacular purposes and on occasion), but because the religious phase of the question was dearest to her heart. In both dramas, the Heraelidze and Supplices, an exactly similar scene occurs, a prelude where the chorus of old men and women in a flurry of excitement speak to the audience their hopes and fears. The fundamental conception of both choruses is trust in God. In the I-Ieraclidie, the chorus says: Z615; ,uOL slip/aux“, 01’) qSofiiOii,l.Lo.L.a That in the Supplices sings: KEKA’IHLE’VOUS ,uév draxahofipefl’ 0.13 060159 ' (MM. (bdflwv m’om (1'8: wpuira.‘ And their first thot after they hear the successful issue of the battle is their trust in God.5 Just as the first act of Iolaus after the battle in the Heraclidae is to set up a‘ trophy to Zeus." And it is this Iolaus who, amid the excitement attendant upon military preparation, finds his chief comfort in the thot that Pallas is on their side and that she will not suffer herself to be conquered. . ‘ vmwae’w; yap Ila/Md; aim due’femfl It is Iolaus also who, as the victorious army of Eurystheus is approaching and all fear the outcome of the war, finds consolation in the thot that it is just such a puffed-up mark as Eurystheus is that Zeus delights to hit. (MM; 7631/ dammed-raw 6 Zeus Kohaorfis‘ 713v dyav firep¢p6vww8

JSuppl. 28. 2Suppl. 301-2. 3Heracl. 766. 4Suppl. 626; cf. also 615- 617. ﬁsuppl. 731-3. ﬂHeracl. 936. 7Heracl. 352. SHeracl. 387, 388. 8 The Dramas of Euripides.

Nothing could perhaps better show the absolute reverence and trust in the gods which the old display than Iolaus’ response to Demophron when the latter, after having espoused the cause of Iolaus, announces to him that he must abandon it. All the oracles had declared that a high-born maid must be sacrificed1 before success would crown the Athenian arms. Demophron will not sacrifice his own daughter, nor will he force any of his subjects to sacrifice theirs. Hence he must abandon Iolaus to his fate. In this distressing turn of affairs Iolaus’ faith does not waver. His first words after his first bitter disappointment strike the keynote of his thot. “If it is God’s will that I suffer thus,” etc., he says: :2 050201 31‘] Bake? 70:8: wpdaacw e’la’fi And later, when bidding Macaria good-by, and when, pressed down by his grief, he was inclined to murmur against the fate which made such a demand upon him, we find only the guarded statement: “I hesitate to speak ill of Persephone: ” 3vo¢weiv yap dzonac easy.” Of like import is Ale- mene’s statement: Zeb; 6? 5.14.0?) [LEV 015K dxdua'e'rac fainting.4 And it is with evident delight that she seizes the first opportunity“ which presents itself to glorify his name and to repudi- ate any criticism which might have been implied in the line (718) just quoted. Her first feeling too is a pious one when she sees her great enemy Eurystheus being led captive before her. :5 [1.2009, firms, and a" a? After] xpérag.“ In like manner also in the Suppliees it is Adrastus, the graybeard,T who is made to reflect on the issue of the war. These reflections are “conceived in a spirit finely opposed to human pride.“ “Why do men say that wretched mortals are wise?” he asks. “We are (utterly) dependent upon God and do only those things which he permits.” And this spirit of meditative philosophy characterizes his actions. The he canndt understand the hard purpose of Apollo10 in ordering him to marry his daughters to foreigners, yet just so soon as the first opportunity presents itself he implicitly obeys, tho the issue is

1Heracl. 407. 2Heracl. 437. 3Herac]. 600. 4Heracl. 718. 5Heracl. 869. GHeracl. 941. 7Suppl. 166. BPaley, Suppl. note to line 734. 9Suppl. 734-6. See p. 2, note 3. “Suppl. 138. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 9

war and humiliation. This same reverence and awe of the gods he shows in the Phoenician Maidens. In the battle at the gates, when Capaneus is killed and Adrastus recognizes the hand of God in his death, he immediately withdraws the Argive army from the contest.1 In the Cyclops the religious instinct of the old is made to serve a very humorous turn. Old Silenus has got himself into “quite a ﬁx” disposing of his master’s meat and cheese. The chance to get a taste once again of the much-longed-for wine has led him, in the absence of Polyphemus, to agree to give in exchange for a bottle of wine some of the Cyclops’ food. The latter, unfortunately for old Silenus, returns as the transfer is about to be made, and catches all parties concerned in the very act. Silenus, however, is not dismayed at this development. The fertility in eoneocting schemes, which is another characteristic of the old in Euripides (see pp. 60-65), stands him well in hand. He extricates himself from his di- lemma by a piece of amazing mental gymnastics. He declares that the meat and cheese which the Cyclops sees had been stolen by the strangers after he himself had been overpowered and beaten black and blue.“ And when the strangers try to present their side of the case, old Silenus shuts them up good and short by a voluble appeal to all the gods and goddesses to attest his innocence." In the mouth of no other man than an old man would this display of religious fervor have been half so comic or pathetic.“ In the Iph. Au]. it is the old servant who tells Agamemnon that the gods will have their way in spite of men. de [13] 01‘) 967979 rd 0661' 0177-0) ﬁovhdasv’ germs" And in the same play Agamemnon’s father—in-law, Tyndareus, “being an old. man and reverenclag the sacred customs,”‘S so ,' we are told, interposed to allay the family feud.

IPhaen. 1187-8. ecycl. 288. acycl. 262-8. 40f. also the frequency with which Silenus calls on the gods. 555, 558, l 560, et al. nIph. Au]. 32-3. “Iph. Aul. 1155—6; npéaﬂu; Tuvddpmr. . . . yerépevovlnémr. Cf. also Tynda- ' 1 reus’ making the suitors swear to abide by the decision of Helen. 10 The Dramas of Euripides.

In the Hippolytus the old1 servant is the instrumentality Euripides adopts to urge Hippolytus to let his religion extend to all the gods—even to Aphrodite,2 adding that the gods must have their due.3 And as is customary, when Hippolytus, a young man, proves himself recalcitrant and stubborn, the old men have recourse to prayer, declaring in their prayer of inter- cession that his irreligion is due to youth." And the old nurse, to break down I’haedrz’s resistance, appeals to the incestuous loves of Zeus and the other immortals, pretending at any rate implicit belief in those stories. In the Trojan Women Hecuba is the devout old woman we should expect to ﬁnd. She is shocked at the godlessness of Agamemnon in marrying Cassand ‘a in the face of the prohibi- tion of the gods. '7; raw 7017 (POL/ﬂan wapOe’vov, f; 'ye'pag é xpvooxéaa; 33am, dAEK'rpov {o'avrr’ She attributes the failure of the Trojan arms to the gods ;" and her strange prayer (lines 884-8), far from being in her mouth a sign of her incredulity, is the joyous exclamation of triumphant faith. Helen, her enemy, the author of all her wretchedness, is dragged off the stage by the hair to what will soon be death. This was the consummation Hecuba had striven for. The ac- complishment of her purpose shook her soul to its depths, and she saw in Helen’s death the just decree of a just god. Her deep religious sense is touched; a strange cry,7 due to her excitement, escapes her, but the burden of that cry is exultant faith. Her character thruout the play is consistently religious. , A study of her reply (lines 686-708) to Andromache’s speech (634-683) reveals this well. Andromache is_ utterly hopeless at the lot which has come upon her, and contends that death, which is nothing but forgetfulness,“ is far better than life. Hecuba, on the other hand, comparing her condition to a storm at sea, ad-

1Hip. 114. 2Hip. 99. 3Hip. 107. 4Hip. 118. 5Tl‘0. 252. 0T1‘0. 608-9, 343. TMenelaus says (889) when he hears her prayer: Ti 6' four; ebxdg (I); E'Kafwa'ag 195611. STI‘O. 636-7. 76 ,m) yevéadal n; 19arelv Zaov M70 101') 5’77» 65' Maria); erlo‘o‘dr éan Kardauriv. (lb/£2 ydp obdé‘v T611) Kamfw y'odn/tévog. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 11

mits that she too is distressed; but since it is God’s work,1 she takes courage and looks with hope to the future. Compare the closing words of both“ Note the difference. It is due to Hec- , uba’s firm belief in the justice of the gods. She cannot be utterly cast down. On the other hand thruout Andromache’s stay upon the stage she evinces a hardness of heart towards _, them. Her last words as she goes sweeping off are indicative: '1 “No use to fight against the destroying gods.”3 Hecuba’s f fifio‘t; (969-1032) further shows her sincere belief in the gods. She rushes to their defense first.“ Notice further that it is ' . Hecuba, an old woman, who is put forward as the champion ‘ of the gods. She strips away sensuality from them“ and declares that the evil in men’s nature is due to themselves and in no wise to the gods.“ She vindicates nobly the proper attitude of the old towards the gods and atones for any hasty exclamation which may have been wrung from her under accumu- ’ lated sorrow.T And at the very end of the play when everything has been swept a\ my from her and her city is crumbling to its fall her sorrowful lamentation is: “Oh, the temples of the gods and my city dear P’s Zu‘) 953w [Le/\aapa Kai. 76M; (bf/\a. In the Hercules Furens, Amphitryon and the chorus are the ‘ ye’poms who engage our attention. As usual, they breathe a deep religious feeling. Amphitryon, who speaks the prologue, is a suppliant like Iolaus in the Heraclidae, at the altar of Zeus Soter, , Bur/1.511 Kadr'éw T611862 o’w‘rfipos Aids,” 3‘ seeking there safety from the murderous desires of his enemy. Amphitryon believes the old stories of the gods, and is put forward as the defender of them against the onslaughts10 of the blasphemer, Lycus. He appeals to these old stories as proof 3 of Hercules’ divinity and prowess.11 And he further evinces his

1 Tro. 696. (11ml ydp of”: 198011 ,us Jbo'n/uog Kli'ulwv.) ETI‘O. 681-3, 697-705. 3TI‘O. 775-7. ~1Tro. 969-70. 5Tro. 981-2. (a!) filuaflslg 72'0st flair.) 6TIT). 989. (TC. ,udipa ydp mivr’ 2'6er ’Aopodim fiporalr.) TSee page 23. '5Tro. 1317. 9H. F. 48. 10H. F. 144-64, especially 149-50. UH. F. 174-6. 12 The Dramas of Euripides.

deep religious sense by exhorting Lycus to act gently so that the gods may act gently by him. , Bit} 3% Spicy; pajfiév, i; 11-day Bias! 51m! 9669 0'01. «vein/.41 herafiahu‘w 711x17} He has a firm belief in the entity of Zeus, for he calls on him (possibly with a little impatience) to help, and that quite speedily.2 But nothing shows Amphitryon’s religious sense better than lines 599-605. Hercules has just returned unexpectedly from Hades. All is joy at his arrival, for it means salvation for his wife, father, and children, and death to their common - enemy. Everywhere is there hilarity, joyousness, and self-confidence. At this juncture, when every one else has religious thots about as far as possible from them, Amphitryon, the old man, following the religious bent of his nature, commands Hercules to perform his obligations to the gods and get their help in the impending crisis.3 The chorus of old men, too, thruout the play are on the side of the accepted beliefs. Especially significant are lines 801-6. “Beyond expectation even the tale of thy marriage in days agone is shown to me true. Time has convinced me!” The passage clearly shows that Euripides conceived old age as the quieter of doubts. As old age comes on, the old become more religious, cease to speculate, and accept the traditional beliefs. In the Andromache the very first reference to an old person is in connection with the religious zeal of Peleus. Andromache has taken refuge at the altar of Thetis not so much because of her own trust as because, so she tells us, old Peleus, with his household, reveres the goddess so. She hopes to profit by Peleus’ religious zeal.“ And thruout the play old Peleus himself fully sustains the religious reputation with which Androm- ache invests him. No word of censure of the gods escapes him even in the midst of his greatest distress. In summing up the agencies thru whose influence he exercises lordship over the

1H. F. 215-16. 2H. F. 498-500. 3H. F. 604-5. 4013. Heraclidae 871-2, where Alcmene says that the formerly she had disbelieved, now she knows that Hercules is a. god. fiAnd. 44—6 ; cf. also in this connection And. 568. (17v of; oar/racrizv aéfiag.) Personal Characteristics of the Old. 13 land of Phthia he places the gods first.1 And his very last words as he leaves the stage at the conclusion of the drama contain a reference to the correct attitude of the gods.2 In the Electra the rpE'UBvs, tho on the stage but a short While, displays this religious sense in a marked manner. In fact, even before he appears Electra says to the afi'rovp'yos that when the old fellow hears of Orestes’ return he will rejoice and thank God. ’ ficafio'e'rat' 70L Kai. npoaedtfcrac 9501‘s.3 This is a touch true to the old man’s nature; for his first words when he recognizes Orcstes are: (3 7ro’rw’, 517x01), 91370.75}; ’Hhéxrpa 06659.4 In the Helen the righteousness of old Proteus” is thruout the play thrown into sharp contrast with the godlessness of the young Theoclymenns. It is hardly too much to say that the entire movement of the drama (up to line 1165) hinges upon the contrast between the action which righteous Proteus would take, were he alive, and that action which the godless Theoclymenus has in mind to take." Proteus would honor the gods and respect virtue; Theoclymenus docs neither. He even proposes to kill his own sister when he finds that she has thwarted his licentious purpose7 and is stopped only by the interposition of heaven. The beginning of the speech of the old messenger (711) is an interesting passage. Helen and Menelaus had in the recognition scene immediately preceding been inclined to censure the gods for their harshness and deceit towards themselves.3 And this, too, in spite of the fact that they evince elsewhere in this play an unusual degree of piety. In fine contrast to this hardly concealed criticism of the gods by Helen and Menelaus is the speech of the old messenger. He tells them both: “God works in a mysterious way; and tho he does turn things up- side down, yet he does it for some good purpose.”

lAnd. 759-60. 2And. 1283 (bracketed by Murray). 3Electra. 415. 4Electra 563. 6He]. 962. “Cf. Menelaus’ plea for life (961-90). The crux of this plea is the ever-recurring crux of the play. Cf. 1002-4, 1028-9. 7He1. 1624-6. SHel. 667-97. 0Hel. 711-. 14 The Dramas of Euripides.

In the Orestes Tyndareus is shocked at Menelaus for vio— lating the sacred customs of Greece in speaking to the blood- stained Orestes—a thing which religion forbade.1 And the burden of his speech (491-540) is the necessity of observing law, both religious and civil. Note especially 518-25, and of these mark the following lines (523-25) : dam/(3 8’, Ecovmp Sui/(176s elm, 11:3 vojup To 977pu3369 7051-0 Kau.’ pmufidvov watiuw, 8 Kai 7911/ Kai mikes dhhvo" dd. His final appeal to Menelaus to have nothing to do with Ores- tes is a religious appeal.” In the Phoenissze the old pedagogue, tho sympathizing with Eteocles, says that Polynices has justice on his side, and his fear is that the gods will see it that way.3 Also old Iocasta, the inclined to grumble at. fate," declares that God’s visita- tions must be borne: 8:? de’pew n3: 76w 656w.“ She ends her long exhortation to the boys to forget their past disagreements with a fervent, “May God help you?” Nothing could exceed the deep religious tones of the following: ofi'rot 1d xp'éna'r’ {Sta Ke'K-rnme Bporoi To 76v 056w 3’ é'xov'rcs e’maehorihegai A noteworthy example of the godlessness of youth and the reverence of age is found in Phoen. 771-3. Eteocles is‘ ashamed to meet Tiresias because of his many scoliing crit- icisms of the soothsayer’s art. He asks Creon, therefore, to meet and talk with Tiresias for him. “Tiresias,” he says, “will talk to you gladly, but me he hates because of my many strictures on his art.” This reverence for things religious which Eteocles here attributes to Creon, the old uncle displays thruout the play.

lores. 481; cf. also line 485. 20res. 624. Cf. also Ores. 627-8. In these lines he recognizes himself as being on the side of religion. 3Phoen. 154-5. dPhcsn. 86; also 379 et pas. 5Phoen. 382. GPhoen. 467-8. 7Phoen. 555-6. SThis character of Eteocles is maintained. It is he and his brother who think they can outwit the gods (872-4). Tiresias in horror tried to prevent their wickedness. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 15

Of. his desire to propitiate the death god: 70?; 731p 9avoiim xpi] for 01': reel/Mora. rind; 3L36V‘ra. xdémov tfiaefleiv 656v} Cf. also his words when he exiles (Edipus.2 As it is with the other old characters of this play, the Phoenician Maidens (Jccasta, the Pedagogue, Creon), so it is with old (Edipus himself. The on the stage but a short time, yet that time is sufficient for the poet to bring out the religious element which we have shown he conceived to be one of the fundamental attributes of senile nature. CEdipus’ whole attitude towards the gods may be seen in the closing words of the drama where the old man, as he goes off the stage into exile, says: 76.; yap e’K 653w dvdyKag 91177761! 51/70. 35E ¢€IP5W-3 In the Medea the messenger, in describing the death of Creusa, says that as soon as Creusa’s strange actions were noticed it was an old servant who, thinking her mad, raised from motives of superstitions piety a powerful cry.“ And the old father’s first thot after falling down and embracing the young body of his daughter was a religious one: 7!; a" (58’ (ii-44w; Satpovmv dwaiheac; KM.“ In the Melanippe it is Helen, scnea decrep-ltns,“ who, from motives of religious seal, advised and at last persuaded onlus, tho much against his will, to burn his children. YOUNGER CHARACTERS. , This conception of the old which Euripides had—via, that ‘3 their natures were essentially religious and that carping crit- " icism of Divinity and divine affairs could not fittingly7 be put into their mouthm-becomes clearer when we consider the at-

JPhoan. 1320-1. 2Phcen. 1592-4. 3Phcen. 1763. 4Med. 1171-3. r-Med. 1208-10. OEuripides Restitutus, Hartung, Vol. I., p. 117. .— 7The old servant’s appellation, rah-6;, applied to Apollo in Ion 952 and his declaration of 960 do not contradict this statement. Here the ,. old man is so shocked at Creusa’s confession of motherhood and at i the neglect she has suffered at Apollo’s hands that he is not really himself. He simply acquiesces in Creusa’s characterization of the god as a knave. He is shortly so overcome that he covers his face with ‘ his hands and weeps. See also “Additional Note,” p. 23 ff. , 16 The Dramas of Euripides.

titude his younger characters assume in such matters? Here a very torrent of distrust and speculation meets us, quite justifying Aristophanes in his criticism that Euripides persuaded men that there were no gods.2 Euripides, the advanced thinker and speculator, used the younger characters of his dramas thru whom to attack the, to him, impossible beliefs of his day. If we take up and consider some of the younger characters, this becomes apparent. In the Ion we have a young man nineteen or twenty years old who has, from earliest infancy, lived at Delphi, in the service of Apollo. He is a religious enthusiast, and the play opens with several choral odes chanted by him in praise of Apollo and his service. They breathe a deep sense of satisfaction and delight." One could hardly imagine a more un- likely agency than this religious boy for the promulgation of bitter denunciations of God and things divine. Yet this very thing happens, for even while he is engaged in his songs and service a woman approaches the temple oppressed with great grief. She accuses Apollo of wronging her some nineteen years before, and of abandoning both her and her child. She is still young and hurls defiance at the god. “Where can people look for justice,” she wants to know, “if the gods are full of wickedness?” oi roAafi/m'ra. 053w- TL' Sfira' no? 3510):! duoc’a'onev ei 161v Kpa-rofivrmv «iSLKL’aLs ditoupeda.“

1We have, as Dr. Verrall points out (Euripides: The Rationalist, p. 104), “express evidence” to show with what eager zest, all the stronger perhaps because of the ﬂavor of impiety, the younger men of the poet’s day scrutinized his works. Arist. Frogs, 954-7: Ea'sml rov‘rovai Aaleiv r'dz’daEa—

hair-raw 1's uavtiuov éa/ioha; émbv re mums/mi); voriv, (Spar, vaévai, orpéqtew, épdu, rerudCew, KTZ. That is, the younger men were especially given to the discussion of these matters. Hence Euripides thus represents them in his plays. Not all the younger characters are cavillers, but all the carping criticism of the gods is spoken by the young. But see “Additional Note," p. 23. 2Thesm. 450. 3Icn. 128-9, 152-3, etc. 4Ion 253-4. Personal Chmucteristz‘es of the Old. 17

As we might expect, Ion is horrified at the first words of Creusa impugning this terrible crime against Apollo. He fiercely cries out: “Speak not so, 0 woman 1’” And upon Creusa’s reiteration of the charge he sharply says: “Such a ‘1 thing as you aver against the god is not possible.”2 It is not long, however, before Ion is forced to concede by reason of the weight of testimony Creusa adduces that the business has a : suspicious look.a Soon he is convinced that Apollo is really , guilty. He then forgets his former delight in his service and branches out into a lengthy lecture to the god on morality. “Force maids! Beget children only to abandon them! Oh, do , ‘ not so, Apollo! Follow virtue, for thou art strong! The gods 5,; punish man if he is wicked. It is not fair to damn men for . immorality if the gods blaze the way?” ' This is the beginning. From now on till the end of the play this young man, who had started out as a religious devotee, is _\ the mouthpiece for many a harsh and hard statement against the gods. He vies with Creusa in his vituperations and criticism of the gods. He criticises the laws they have made, 1:, '1 sayng that they have made them with but little sense.5 He 5'? has the presumption to say what the divine laws should be.0 .. He attacks the sacred rite of asylum—a rite which extended . its protection to young and old, to good and bad—and he proceeds to such a degree of shamelessneSS that he is on the :2 point of putting his creed into practice; for in his fury he : wants to tear Creusa from the altar and to hurl her upon the rocks.7 Creusa plainly tells the god (see also p. 16) that

1Ion 339. 2Ion 341. “Ion 367. 4Ion 436-41, 449-51. 510a 1313. GIon 1314-19. - 71011 1266-7, 1275-6. Likewise it is Copreus who, in the Heracl. j (99-100), ridicules the rite of asylum and tries to pull“ the suppliants loose. Also Orestes, in the I. T. (119), gladly concurs in Pylades' suggestion to make a. bold attack upon the altar during the coming night. Cf. also Lycus in the H. F. He wants to tear Amphit- ryon, etc., from the altar. In the Dictys, King Polydectes orders Danae" to be torn from the altar, whither she had ﬂed for protection. (Har- tung, Vol. I., p. 371.) In view of these examples of the disregard of 2 18 The Dramas of Em‘ipides. he is unjust,1 and later when she recounts the story of her wrong with bittercst hate she berates the god, accusing him of rape,2 of abandoning his child,3 and she ends by declaring that her base lover" has forfeited by his baseness the love and even the respect of all he holds most dear.“ It is interesting to note that Apollo sends Athena at the end of the play to cut the knot instead of coming himself for fear (see lines 1557-8) that, had he come himself, he would have been severely rebuked by the youthful Ion and by his mother, Creusa. So bold was youth that it would censure a god to his face! As in the Ion, so thruout the dramas of Euripides it is the young thru whom the poet accomplishes the purpose of his religious teaching.“ Perhaps it would be better to say thru whom he introduces his advanced religious conceptions—his religious innovations. Polymnestor, in the Hecnba, accuses the gods of turning things “tol‘isy-turvy” so as to get men to worship them in their ignorance (5)58 it). In the Bacchus it is the godless Pen- theus, a young man, who is contrasted with the religious Cad- mus and Tiresias, old men. He is the caviller and opposcr of religion, carrying his opposition to the point of absolute

asylum by the young, it is likely that Frag. Incert. (Nauck), 1036, was. spoken by one of the younger characters. iyrb ydp hang [177 (Filming (in) (iui/p [do/Lev a'pom’fu, Tbv vii/10v xal’psw e'dm - aptly 17‘,» Jinx/v riyoz/L’ (w oi) rpéaag 1950i}; Ira/tin) ydp Fwd/1a XI”? mm); midyew ('zu’. Hartung, however, assigns it to Atreus in the Cressae (p. 178, Vol. 1.). lion 384. qun 894. 3Ion 902. élon 912. 5Ion 919-22. In the same strain the chorus says they are ashamed of the much-lauded god (1074). oThis has been variously described as a purpose to teach “human nature as the source of moral ideas.” (W. H. S. Jones, in The Moral standpoint of Euripides, p. 21.) And again as a purpose “to arouse reﬂection about the value of certain usages . . . previously observed blindly and without discrimination.” (Decharme, p. 73.) And again as that of a “notorious rationalist, compelled by the circumstances of the time to use for his organ of expression a stage appro- priated by origin and custom to the exhibition of miraculous legend.” (Verrall, Euripides: The Rationalist, p. 166.) Personal Characteristics of the Old. 19

insult and vilencss. He sees only licentiousness—not religion—— in the devotion of the maids and mothers of Thebes.1 He accuses the seer Tiresias of a mercenary motive in his zeal for the new religion,2 and threatens him with chains and prison.3 He brutally and vulgarly rebufl’s his old grandfather when ".5 in his zeal he tries to put a wreath upon the head of Pentheus.‘ And he caps the climax of his impiety by dispatching one of 3 his servants to overthrow the seats of the soothsayers and to , scatter their pa ~aphernalia to the winds.” It is no wonder that the chorus, amazed at these and similar outbursts of : impiety, cry out: “Oh, the impiety! Friend, thou dost not revere the gods!” rfig Svao’efi'st’as, (5 Es’v’ 015K 0.7.35? 0:069.“ ... it is the youthful Hippolytus upon whom an oath, a thing which the Greeks “regarded as a divine institution,”7 sits lightly.S Also it is Agamemnon in the lph. Au]. who declares that some oaths need not be kept.” It is this same Agamemnon -' who, in another place, says of socthsayers that the whole tribe is evil. _ To [Lav'rmov m'iv aaépua qbtitdnluov Kamila“) E And Menelaus even proposes to kill old Calchas as an easy j‘ way to get rid of his troublesome oracles.11 Achilles says that '* soothsayers are liars” for the most part and speak the truth but seldom.” Orcstes in the I. T. says that Apollo, tho called if wise, is as unreliable as evasive dreams.“ Also Pentheus in the Bacchaefl-5 Theseus in the Hippolytus,” Orcstes in the Electra,17 —none of these being old men—all snap their finger in the face of the soothsayers and forcibly discredit them. Further, '1 it is noteworthy that, altho Euripides everywhere18 expresses

1Bac. 221-5. Cf. also 487. 2Bac. 255-7. uBac. 258-9. 4Bac. 343-4. ﬁBac. 346-50. “Bac. 263. TDecharme, p. 72. 8Hipp. 612. 01. A. 393-5. 101. A. 520. ML A. 519. 12In the Helen (744 ft.) the messenger, an old man, voices the same sentiments. But see p. 24. 13L A. 956-8. HT. 570-1. The Orcstes uses the plural, he really refers to Apollo. 1ﬁBac. 255. I‘ll-lip. 1058-9. 17Elec. 400. 1bThe only exception is Theseus in the Supplices (155-9; 211-13). And Thesus was, as we have said (1). 7), religious only for spectacular purposes and on occasion.

20 The Dramas of Euripides.

his contempt for divination and does it, as we have seen, thru the younger of his characters, yet in the Phoenician Maidens he invests the old prophet, Tiresias, with dignity and nobility. It would ill beseem the old Tiresias to be a vaunting caviller. In the Troades, Agamemnon is the godless wretch who 1 yields to his passion and, “setting aside his duty to the god and religious reverence,”1 To \ rov n 9¢ov a 'rc wapakmwv \ 1'0 I 1' , 6130636532 E takes as his eoncubine, Cassandra, to whom Apollo himself had granted the boon of perpetual virginity.a

7 It is Helen who sneeringly declares that Zeus is the victim of his passions: (Zak) 5‘9 76v p.21! dhhaw Sataévwv 5x6. Kptiros Keim: (Kurpts) 82 309M; Eon} And odes beginning with lines 799 and 1060, sung by young women, are nothing but reproaches of Zeus for his neglect. In the H. F., Lyeus, the young usurping king of Thebes (like Copreus in the Heraclidaa, and like Peutheus in the Bacchae), is very sarcastic5 with respect to Hercules’ claim of divinity.“ He ridicules his labors and denies that they give any trace of his divine origin or as even meriting recognition,T impugns his valor,S and even says he always kept a weather eye open on the side of ﬂight.0 Lycus regards Hercules so little that he is bent on murdering his reputed father, Amphitryou, his wife, Megara, and his children.10 He is exceedingly impatient at them for temporarily thwarting his purpose by seeking safety at the altar.11 Further, he is so indifferent towards the gods that he haughtily orders the suppliants smoked out,” and later, when Amphitryon refuses to go in and bring them out, he himself says: “Oh, well; I’ll go myself since I am wholly without samples”13 It is no wonder that the chorus of old men call 3 Lycus dwimov dea. 14

1Paley, note to line 43. 2Tro. 43. 3Tro. 253: 41-2. 4Tro. 949-50. 5H. F. 145-6. 0H. F. 151. 7H. F. 155-6. 8H. F. 157. 0H. F. 161. 10H. F. 168-9. 11H. F. 140-6. 12H. F. 240-4. Cf. Andromache (257), where Hermione (a. young 7 person) attempts the same thing. 13H. F. 722-4. 14H. F. 255. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 21

In the Andromache, the young Hermione is the proud con- temner of the gods. In her superciliousness and vanity she recognizes no obstacles to her will. She declares that the temple of Thetis shall not stand in her way.1 In fact, she adds, no altar, no temple, shall do so.2 And she threatens, as Lyons in the H. F., to smoke Andromache from the protecting altar.3 It is this Hermione who finally decrees the death of the youthful Molossusfi caring not a whit for the desecrated altar of the gods nor for the fact that the murder which she decrees is, as the chorus says, “utterly godless.”5 With her father, Mene- laus, she snaps her finger in the face of the gods and lays herself open to the same charge of no longer believing in the justice or existence of Divinity.“ So vindictive, so unjust, so irreligious is she that Euripides, contemplating these traits of youth, makes Andromache say: “Ah, how bad a thing is youth!”7 Note also that it is the messenger who scornfully denounces Apollo.8 In the Helen the heroine doubts the story of Zeus’ stolen intercourse with Leda." Theoclymenus is thruout a godless young man. Note also the words of the chorus of maidens.10 In the Electra, Orcstes attacks oracles,11 the chorus of young women say they do not put much credence in the legend of Atreus and Thyestes, 7dr) 3% m’a'nv upmpav 7rap’ gnovy’ é'xa,” and Orcstes bitterly complains that Apollo is guilty of a wicked oracle in that he has appointed him to kill his mother whom he ought never to have killed.” And in answer to Elec- tra’s suggestion that Apollo can do no wrong he blasphem- ously exclaims: “I never will believe that this oracle is a just one.” 0138’ Fill 1rL00L'a77v £17 acaavrcfia'dal 78:.“ In the Orcstes, Electra in the prologue, while recounting the calamitous history of Tantalus, significantly adds, «5; Ae’yovm, twice within four lines (5-9). I’orson, quoted by Paley

1And. 161. 2And. 162. 3And. 257. 4And. 519. Cf. 431-2. 5And. 491. 6And. 439. mm. 184. BAnd. 1161-5. ﬁle]. 21. 10Hel. 1137-43. 11El. 399-400. 12E]. 737. 18E]. 971: 973. “El. 981. 22 The Dramas of Euripides.

(note to' line I" I), says: “Irma-it Electram. parum credulam esse.” Helen says in line 76 of the Orestes that she blames Phoebus, not Orcstes, for the sin of Clytemnestra’s murder;1 and Orestes in a perfectly sane moment, and therefore fully conscious of what he says, declares: A0503. 3% as’adzopat 50119 ,u.’ émipas Epyov dvoatérarov 701‘s aév )uiyois ndtppai/s, role 3’ é’pyoww 05.2 Note also lines 304, 414, and 416. Observe the response (line 417) of Menelaus to line 416. Both Menelaus and Orcstes are continually bitter towards Apollo, reproaehiug him for the oracle and for his delay in sending help; the now and then Orestes arises to full trust: in him. Cf. 418-420. In the Melauippe it is the youthful Melauippe who in the prologue says: Zeus, darts 6 Zeus' of: yap 033a whi‘gu Niym

KA‘tjwll.3 These words were so blasphemous that Euripides, to allay the storm which followed, had to change themf Like- wise it is Bellerophon who was so godless thruout the play which bears his name that before the end of the piece such a tumult arose in the theater that Euripides himself had to appear on the stage and quiet the people.“ In view of all these examples of outspoken questionings on the part of the young as to the nature of Zeus and the other gods, it is likely that Frag. Incert. 935 (Nauck) should be assigned to some one of the younger cha 'acters.“ From the preceding discussion, therefore, it seems fair in conclusion to sum up the matter thus: If Euripides rm); dvspas draw-tans“ aim elvcu. 0:069] he did it by the mouth Of his younger characters. The old have a decided religious bent.

10f. Electra’s words in Orestes, 161-5. 201-. 285-7. 3Frag. 483. 4Euripides Restitutus, Hartung, Vol. I., p. 114. DEuripides Restitutus, Hartung, Vol. I., p. 399. “Hartung (Vol. L, p. 179), however. assigns it to Atreus in the Cressze. TAristoph. Thesm., 450. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 23

ADDITIONAL NOTE. Troades, lines 468-9: oi 050E. KaKot‘Js [LEV dvaxahé') rot); avaadxovs. 'Troades, line 1280: MIL \ TL I TOUS‘ \ 960v; \ Kuhn); 5 Kat \ wpw I yap \ ovK l nKova'av V avaKaon/Levot. D I Troades, line 1240: 015K 17v (iip’ s'v 960701 whip! ofiaoi 7r6v0L. In the light of our study we should have expected to find these words in the mouth of a younger character. We have shown, however (pp. 10-11), that Hecuba’s character is normal. In these three passages, she evinces those other characteristics of the old, garrulity and excitability,1 being led by these traits into unseemly remarks. She is under great excitement thruout the play. Her city is taken, and is to be burned (1260) ; Astyanax, her grandson and only hope, is torn from her embrace and killed (720) and then returned to her for burial (1147), etc. Under these accumulated blows she yields in these three passages to her emotions and forgets herself. Her emotional and garrulous characteristics here pre- dominate over her religious traits. It is but momentary, however, for immediately after line 469 she remarks: “However, I like to pray just the same.” 5pm; 8’ E'XEL Tl. axfiaa KLKMia'KELV 060159.? So much for lines 468-9. Lines 1280-1 are recognized by Talthybius as not expressing Hecuba’s real sentiments, for he immediately replies: “Thy misfortunes have upset thy mind.” évdouo‘uj‘s, Bdornvs, 701‘s oavrfi; Karmic.3 While Hecuba’s very next utterance is a fervent prayer to Zeus.“ This again for lines 1280-1. Lines 1240-2 are immediately followed by a reflection (1249—) on the divine purpose of her sorrow, which reflection brings her consolation. So that none

1See pp. 39 ff., 52 ff. 2Tro. 470. 3Tro. 1284. 4Tro. 1287. 24 The Dramas of Euripides. of these passages, tho a little irregular, are in reality atheistical. Note also H. F. 212, 341-7, 501. Zeus’ identity and existence are not once questioned in these lines; in fact, his existence may be said to be the keynote of all of them. The querulous tone is due to an excessive depression over the distressing state of his affairs. And while. we would expect to ﬁnd them in the mouth of younger people, they do not altect Amphi'tryon’s religious character. Line 212 is followed directly (215) by a pious remark and (501) errs on the side of excessive religious zeal. The long passage (341- 7) is redolent with belief in the old stories; tho, as we said above, the querulous tone would usually be put into a younger mouth. Amphitryon is provoked beyond the power of self~ control by Zeus’ continued neglect. Helen, lines 744-757. This bitter attack on oracles is spoken by an old messenger. Here the well-known talkativeness of heralds and Euripides’ hatred of the class1 may be urged as explaining (so also Hec. 488 if. and Ores. 954-6) the unusual phenomenon of an old man’s being a caviller. And yet this outburst, bitter as it is, is directed against impositions and deceptions of men rather than the existence and identity of God (cf. lines 753-4). For this old messenger was a pious old soul and had a clear and just conception (as we have shown on p. 13) of the activity of Deity in the affairs of men. His talkativeness gets in this instance the better of his discretion.

GARRULITY. The next characteristic of old people which we may note in the dramas of Euripides is their loquacity and excessive garrulity. This very marked trait of character in the old of Euripides is closely associated with three other traits no less common than that of garrulity, but which stand in some such relation to it as cause stands to effect. Garrulity is the resultant of these other traits. It is the compound of which they are the component parts. They become, therefore, for our purpose

10f. Ores. 895-6, Heracl. 292. Suppl. 381, Tro. 424. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 25 the sub-sections of a general head. Topically arranged, the proposition assumes the following form: GARRULITY on LOQUACITY. (a) Bodily infirmity, with its consequent weakness and loss of power, combined with an ardent desire to be young and strong. (1)) Excitability of temper, bordering sometimes upon iras— cibility. (c) A conviction that to give admonition to their juniors was the necessary duty of age. Before proceeding to the discussion of these points I desire to call attention again to the fact that (a), (b), (c) are not to be considered as secondary—'2'. e., minor traits of character, merely because they are arranged as sub-heads. They are bold, glaring, ever-recurring traits with which Euripides has endowed his old characters. We have arranged them as we have merely to facilitate the discussion and because they are the traits which logically explain, or, to put it otherwise, which cause garrulity. The first topic, therefore, under this head which we will discuss 1S: (a) BODILY INFIRMITY, wrrn I’rs CONSEQUENT WEAKNESS AND Loss or Pownn, COMBINED WITH AN ARDENT DESIRE TO BE YOUNG AND STRONG. This natural result of age, bodily infirmity, is very prominent in the old characters of Euripides. They are weak and halting in body and querulous of the restraints which this bodily infirmity imposes upon them. They would be other than they are; they would still take their wonted part in the activ- ities of the time and place in which they are, but the limitation of advancing years, with the inroad which these years make upon their bodily strength, prevents. They recognize with bitterness their impotence and yield, because they must, and not because they will, their places to younger actors. Old Ampliitryon’s words in the Mad Hercules show this trait in excellent wise.1

1H. F. 228-35. 26 , The Dramas of Euripides.

It is in this vein that he speaks whenever he refers to himself, always showing impatience and scorn at his impotent age. 51' Tl. 81‘; XP’l Kdy.’ e’v derafo’w Ae’yetr yépovr’ dxpei‘ov.1 “A useless old man, me! A real man? fie!” The chorus of old men, who have come to lament2 with Am- phitryon, with bitter words emphasize at all times this feebleness of age. Their first words as they come upon the stage are indicative: 6’chth . . . Ema. pair/0v Kai 36mph. varepmrov éwfixwv dualpii-rwv 'rponepd phi, 01M», 6'pr wpégvnafi “I have come, a mere voice, a gloomy-visaged fancy of midnight dreams, with trembling yet with zealous foot.” Note the very pathetic appeal of the chorus to its powerless right hand to take the spear and drive the usurper from the land.‘ Note in the above lines the bitterness he feels at the thot of his weakness. Of the same tenor are lines 312-14, 436- 41. Very noteworthy in this connection is the choral ode beginning with line 037. It gives us a clear insight into Euripides’ own thots on this subject, for he is here speaking subjectively. The words he puts into the mouth of the old chorus express his own opinion about this phase of old age.“ He says: dxdos 3% 1'6 'yfipas‘ a’LeL’ Bapti-repov Alf-runs o-xoa-e'va 6’er Kpari. Kc'L‘TaL.“ In the Troades 01d Hecuba, when wondering whose slave she is to be, calls herself a “drone” (Kydn’v),7 “the shadow of a corpse” (SELAaL’a vexpofi noquai),3 “a feeble image of the dead” (1’erqu tincvrjvbv dyaAn’).”

1H. F. 41. 2H. F. 109. your doulég‘. 8H. F. 109-13. 4H. F. 268-72. 5In Herculis tempore constituendo sequor Wilamow. Her. 1, p. 137 sqq.; tamen noluerim ante annum 420 eam ponere, quia tum nondum adeo aet‘ate provectum Euripidem fuisse patet, ut. senectutem queri posset. Conradus Haym: De puerorum in re scaeniea Graecorum partibus. Dis. Phil. Hal., Vol. XIII., Par. IV., p. 284, N. 3. 0H. F. 637-40. Ct. also lines 649-54. 7Tro. 191. BTro. 192. DTro. 193. Cf. with these words of Hecuba, Frag. Eolus, 25. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 27

In the Andromache, Andromache wishes for Peleus in her time of trouble.1 whereat the old servant responds: “He’s an old one; too old to help even if present.” ye’puw EKeLvos A more U 0’ (549MHz! A repair/.2 Again, when Peleus is advancing to deliver the suppliants from the hand of Menelaus, he says: “Now, if ever, is there need that I feel young again.”3 Later on in the play Hermione tells Orcstes that her father has gone back to Sparta, his purpose being given up because of Peleus’ opposition. Orcstes exclaims: “What! He wasn’t conquered by that old. fellow, was he?”4 Further on Hermione expresses fear that Peleus may overtake them in flight. Orcstes responds: “Don’t fear that old fellow.” And plainly implies: “I am fully able to defend you against him.” In the Ion the weakness of age and the desire to appear strong are again referred to. Creusa summons the 01d pedagogue, who is her ally, not to yield to fatigue as he approaches the temple (745). The old man braces himself up and proudly answers: “It won’t be my fault if I do.” He immediately realizes his condition, however, for he adds: “I’m but half my former self.” 6AM: pr?) wapfis K6703 odxovv éKuiv ye, To?) 3’ limit/To; 01’; Kputt'b.“ Of. also the old pedagogue’s apostrophe to his age and his desire for youth as he goes off the stage to effect the murder of Ion.7 Cf. also, old Phegeus in the Alcmaeon in Psophide when he finds out that Alcmaeon has deceived him, and that the neck-

1And. 79. =‘Aud. 80. :lAud. 552. So Paley. Murray, however (Oxford Text Eurlp., Tomus 1, note to Audr. 553), says that Verrall thinks éaawd is said aside to the slave, refusing his help: “In parenthesi 57mm?) (benigne) senem dicere pu- tat, Verrall servi auxilium abnuentem.” If this interpretation be correct, old Peleus, instead of wishing for the strength of youth, reigns its presence. 4And. 917. 5And. 993. 0Ion, 746. 710a 1041-4. Bayﬁeld says (Ion, note to line 1045): “This apostrophe is far beneath the dignity of tragedy." Be this as it may, the desire for youthful strength is a trait of the old which Euripides is continually recurring to. 28 The Dramas of Euripides.

lace which he asks for is not for Apollo at all, but fer Alcmzeon’s new wife. The old fellow calls his sons, chides them for their sloth in punishing Alcmaeon’s perfidy, and himself «wishes for the strength which he had when young, saying:1 “Quia nec vos (filii Phlegi) nec ille (Alcmaeon) impune inrideret meam gran- daevitatem.” In the Alcmene it is the sloth and weakness of age which the poet uses to produce the atastrophe. Tlepolemus, a rash youth and impatient of the weakness of Licymnius, first bitterly upbraids him for his sloth (seguitiaiu) and then later kills him either intentionally, being unable longer to endure the weakness of Licymnius which he thot a drawback to himself, or unintentionally because the old age of Licymnius prevented his evading the blow which Tlepolemus aimed at a slave (Hartung, Eurip. Rest, Vol. I., pp. 538-9). In the Heraclidie this characteristic of the old—feebleness of body coupled with a desire to be other than they are, to be what they once were, is well shown. Iolaus exhibits thruout such traits. When the servant of Hyllus comes in asking for Iolaus, he finds him on the floor covered with his robes and exhausted from his emotions.2 On hearing the servant call his name the old fellow replies: “Here I am, if my presence can avail anything.” And again: “I am an old man, weak and feeble!” In spite of this recognition of his weakness, however, as soon as he hears that the Argive host is mobili- zing (675-7) he wants to go out and help his friends (680-1). He is reminded that he is a helpless, weak old man whose chief offensive weapon is the power to make grimaces (684), whose strength is a thing of the past (688), and whose presence will lend but trifling strength to the army (690). Old Iolaus indignantly repudiates“ this estimate of his powers and

1Quoted by Hartung, Eurip. Rest, Vol. 1., p. 192. 2Heracl. 604 ff. 3Heracl. 632. IlHerael. 636. ﬁAlcmene is just like Iolaus. Tho she says (648), dodem); per 7} 7’ in?) Mum, yet she boasts of her prowess and advises the servant to look well to his actions: cl d2 rdwds 7rpom9i§et xepi (51)le ycpévrow oi; mild); dymvzel (653-4). Note also her words in line 650.

Personal Characteristics of the Old. 29

vauntingly declares that a shield and not a grimace shall be his weapon (685) ; that no Argive knave shall dare to 100k him in the eye (687) ; and that neither argument nor reason shall swerve him from his fixed resolve to go (691). Notwithstand- ing all this boldness, and much more, the old fellow is so weak and feeble that when the armor and war accoutrements are brought out he is unable to bear the weight of them, or even to walk without help (724-8). Yet so eager is he to be strong as he once was that he deceives himself with all sorts of reasons that his present actions are needful for the success of his enterprise. His debility is great; he can hardly walk at all; yet he thinks that he is fairly running. ozl’xovu spas you 7(6on (59 e’vreiyerac;1 is the question he asks the attendant. And when the latter expresses doubt about it, old Iolaus boastfully replies: “Wait till I get there; then you’ll see wonders.” 01’) Tafi'ra M505, 'I'lw’K’ Ziv Macon; ,u.’ that.” At last, however, a dawning consciousness seems to come to the old fellow as to his real condition, for he apostrophizes his arm in touching words.“ In the Bacchte old Tiresias and Cadmus as they advance to the worship of Dionysus talk exultantly of their boyish strength" and their power of endurance.“ Euripides brings out, among other ways, this teebleness of age by introducing in many places old people all tired out and exhausted from the effort of walking or by showing what an exertion it is for them to walk at all. In the Heracl. it is difficult for old Iolaus to walk to battle even when accompanied by the servant (724-35). In the Ion the pedagogue, when summoned by Creusa to come up to the oracle of Apollo (727), asks her to help him up, for the “oracle is steep” (739). Cf. also (740). In the Electra the old servant finds it difficult to approach the house (489-90). In the Phoenissae old Tiresias, on coming upon the stage, is exhorted by Creon to stop and take breath (8501).“

1Heracl. 734. 2Heracl. 737. nHeracl. 740-3. 4Bac. 190. GBac. 187-9. 0Note how Tiresias, as he comes upon the stage leaning upon the arm of his daughter (834 ft.), comments upon and thereby clearly brings out the weakness and debility of age. 30 The Dramas of Euripides.

In the Her. Fur. the chorus of old men exhort themselves to persevere in the toll of their approach (119). In the Andromachc, Pcleus’ approach is announced thus: mrovSfi ”96/70. Sailpo 777,311th ”6311.1 In the Alcestis Pheres’ approach is similarly announced.2 In the Bacchte old Tiresias and Cadmus lead one another with hesitating step (185-6, 193, 364; cf. p. 33). In the Orestcs old Tyndareus comes in panting, all worn outwith his exertions (470). Cf. also 474: dyeré as. Cf. also 456: cideo/lar (“I struggle with my feet”). In the Hecuba (59-67) I-Iecuba comes in exhorting her slaves to help her, and leaning on a crooked stal’t‘. Cf. also 170-2; 281, fi'yquiw 6301'}. In the Suppliccs (172) Adrastus speaks of the suppliants thus: Gail/at ltd/\Ls ycpau‘z Kwofia'ac Mam. Cf. with this 'l‘ro. 1275, 1327. Also Frag. lncert. 868. An interesting case of this slowness of movement of the old occurs in the Chrcsphontes. Merope is on the point of slaying her son, who, she thinks, is another person. No one is near to prevent her save an old servant, and the audience, so we are told,8 is all excitement lest the old man should not come up soon enough to prevent the murder.“ In the Cressm, the old man who had been sent by the queen to tell Thyestes of the plans of Atreus comes forward slowly and with hesitation. Thyestes accosts him: “Quemnam te esse dicam, qui tarda in senecta.”"’

LUDICROUS ASPECT OF THIS TRAIT, OF THIS DF- SIRE TO BE YOUNG. This desire of the old to be other than they are, to be strong and virile as when ~they were young, often assumes a somewhat

1And. 546. 2Ala. 611-. 3Plutarch T. 11, 998.13, quoted by Hartung, Eur. Res, Vol. II., p. 50. 4p?) @9de Thu érrl7.alu,8av6/lsvou yépnum Kai r/nbay Tb [lEl/VlK/OV. émZa/IﬁaM/tevov implies difficulty and slowness of action on the part of the old man. 5Ennius Frag, quoted by Hartung, Eurip. Rest, Vol. I., p. 178. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 31

ludicrous aspect. Cf. in this connection old Peleus’ command to the minions of Menelaus, who are dragging Andromache off the stage: “Loose their bonds, or some one will be set to howling;”1 and also his threat to split Menelaus’ head with his cane.2 There is nothing funny in all this for old Peleus.3 He is intensely in earnest. The contrast of his bold words with his Weak presence must, however, have been amusing to the audience. Especially must this have been so when, in answer. to Andromache’s fears that some one will set upon and recapture them, the old fellow draws his bent form up as straight as he could and speaks lines 759-65.* In this connection we may note old Silenus in the Cyclops. He persuades himself that he is very hold. “A fig for old Cyclops!” he says,5 “I’ll sell his stull’! I’ll give all the goods of all the Cyclops for a single cup, and then, dead drunk and fancy free, throw myself into the sea.” These bold words become ridiculous in view of the craven tear of old Silenus when the Cyclops comes back and finds him about to sell his goods (222 ft). Amusing, too, because of this trait of the old, this desire to be young, is the opening scene of the Iph. Aul. The old man whom Agamemnon summons from the palace (1) comes mum- bling along with too slow a gait to suit the impatient Aga- memnon. The latter exhorts him to hasten (3). The old man responds: “I’m coming as wide awake and sharp of eyes as can be.” ,uaiha 70L yfipas rail/1.6V tili'vrvov e'7r’ 6¢9ahpoi9 651‘: wdpw‘rw.“

1And. 577. Cf. also the similar scene in the H. F. where the old chorus exhorts the old men of Thebes to crack the head of the usurper Lycus (254). 2And. 588. 3“The ﬁgure of the old, old man utterly unconscious . . . of the sport which he is affording . . . has in the highest degree that stinging pathos . . . which Euripides wields supremely.” (Dr. Verrall, Four Plays of Euripides, p. 34). 4And. 758-9, 761-5. r-Cyc. 163-7. (After Paley.) 0I. A. 4-5. 32 The Dramas of Euripides.

The weakness of age, however, gets the better of him, for, in spite of his bold words, the old fellow begins to nod and falls asleep1 during the long speech of Agamemnon (49-114) . Cf. also the scene where Iolaus is advancing with the Ospdwaw to battle (Heracl. 729-40). If it were not so pathetic, it would be exceptionally comic.2 (For discussion of this scene, see p. 28 it.)

lThe supposition that the old fellow fell asleep during Agamem- non’s speech (49-114) easily explains how it is that the old man asks (124), “How Achilles will endure the loss of his bride,” when Aga- memnon (106) had just told him that Achilles knew nothing of the plan. '13. B. England in the introduction to his edition of this play (pp. xxiv. xxv.) rejects the idea that the old fellow could have fallen asleep during lines 49-114 on the ground that for him to have done so would have been comic. “But this is no comedy,” he says. On page 82 of the text, however, in his brief outline of the third epeisodion he seems to have forgotten that “this is no comedy,” for he says: “The second scene (verses 819-54) is exquisitely amusing.” Now if lines 819-854 he so “exquisitely amusing,” why can there not be at least a little fun in lines 1-162? Again, Weil’s explanation (quoted by En- gland) of the contradiction between line 124 and line 106, on the ground that the old fellow was particularly stupid, is not borne out by facts. The old man was not stupid. Lines 133-35, where he strips the mask from Agamemnon and clearly apprehends the truth, free him from the charge of stupidity if they do not (I think they do) convict him of an especial degree of intelligence. If further conﬁrma- tion of the idea that the old fellow was prone to fall asleep is wanted, we have it in lines 139-142. Agamemnon had evidently seen the old fellow dozing. Hence he felt it necessary to charge him especially in these lines not to indulge his old age on the way nor to take any nap. {112’ Z19' épéaa'wv 061! «Ma. yam: ,uI/tlév barf/cm: ,m) vuv ,m’rr’ (ihaédetg Kev rcpt/“rag ,mﬁé" ill-nap 19513519179.

The old fellow'a reply. “Mind there what you say!” Ei'g‘mpa 19,265; (143), is quite in keeping with his declaration of wide-awakefulness in lines 4, 5. In fact, it might not be too much to say that the old were characteristically somnolent. An interesting passage occurs in the Pha- éthon, Frag. 775. Phaéthon declares that he will investigate his parentage further when his old father, if once he gets over his nap, comes out. (Lines 15, 16.) And in the Peleus, Neoptolemus, who is about to go hunting, leaves old Peleus in the cave quietly sleeping, “Peleo somno quiescente.” (Hartung, Eurip. Rest., Vol. L, p. 293.) 20f. also Decharme, p. 255: “The contrast between his senile debility and his bellicose intentions is amusing.” Personal Characteristics of the Old. 33

An interesting passage in this connection is the first stasi- mon of the Heraclidte (353 iii). After boasting in grand style that Copreus’ declaration of war would never frighten him, and after cursing Copreus by declaring that he is a ruf- fian, Beac’ws EAKELS (366), and a loon, aim d’Mto Sixarov ci'n-w'v (368), when he comes to think of the proper conduct of the war he is not so certain of his courage and quite tainely declares that in his estimation peace is a fine thing, cipfiw; uh: é'pm'y’ dpe’oxet (371). After another faint flicker of boastful courage, «mi 3’, a} xax6¢>pmv duaf, Ae’ym K-rA (372—6), he ends his grand and warlike words with as pacific a prayer as it is possible to conceive of to Eurystheus to desist and not to despoil Athens with war.1 Possibly also the scene in the Bacchze where Tiresias and Cadmus are hastening to the worship of the god should be noted here, especially lines 363-5. There is, tho, nothing comic in the situation for them.2 It may be also that the scene in the Dictys where, after the old fellow’s ebullient anger (p. 43) and his loud declarations that he would protect Danae at any cost (p. 72), he hurriedly flees to the altar for protection, evokes a smile in the theater. Under this head should possibly be mentioned also the old slave of Creusa in the Ion, who has difficulty in coming up to the temple (738-40) and yet, after a while, wants to burn the temple and does attempt to kill Ion (1170).

1Herac1. 378-80. ~ 2Dr. Kraus in Euripides ein bekehrter Rationalist, p. 5, thinks, however, that there is not the slightest trace of the comic, from any standpoint, in the entire scene. And I am inclined to think that he is right. 3 34 The Dramas of Euripides.

EXPLANATION OF THIS DESIRE OF THE OLD TO AP- PEAR YOUNG AND STRONG. The explanation of this trait of the old, this desire to appear young and strong, is to be sought in a twofold reason: (a) The belief that the old were a useless encumbrance and that their work was done. (1)) The danger, to which the old were always liable, of being abused and maltreated. .Taking up these reasons in the order in which they are given, we ﬁnd under (a) that‘the words of old Iphis in the Supplices are to the point: <3 Snowdhawrov ﬁpas, uis man? 0" Exam.

0179 ('ys’povras) xpfiv, €7r£t3dv #17321, uiqbetMim. 71%! 0 I N a 8 \ 1‘ I 1 EVOVTGS EPPELV KOK7T0 (UV ELI/(IL V5015- Everywhere 7'5 yfipas is likewise spoken of as a hateful and wretched thing. (31’. Frag. Polyidus (3:38. Ct. Frag. (Enomaus 57!); also Frag. Philoctetes 802. Ct". Inc. Frag. 1065 (For Greek see p. xv) Cl". Frag. Danae 31!). Of. with this Frag. xEolus 23 ; also Phoenix 804. Cf. Frag. Autolycus 284. In the diatribe against the athletes it is said that they (the athletes) strut about, the glory of the State; but when bitter old age, yfipas mxpo’v (11), comes, etc. Oi". also Odysseus’ words in the Cyclops. He says to the chorus of Satyrs: “He (old Silenus) is weak and given over to his passions (and cannot, therefore, help us). But you (the Satyrs) are young, and can do us much service.”2 Note here also Admetus’ argument with his father, Pheres, in which he seeks to persuade him to die instead of Alcestis. The whole argument is based upon this conception of cucum- brance and completed work of the old.” Ct. also Adrastus’ words in the Supplices (190-2). These words clearly imply that the old were a useless encumbrance. A significant line occurs in H. F.: - xépw 3E ynpdoKouaav e’xeat'pw (Iii/MW}

1Sup. 1108, 1112-3. 2Cyclops 432-4. “Ale. 711, 338-9. *H. F. 1223. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 35

“I hate a friendship which grows oltl”—i. e., a useless friendship. Of. a similar thot in Iph. Au]. (507-8): “A man of right feeling gains honor that never grows old.”1 Cf. Supplices (1178); Cf. also Ion (700) where the chorus says of Creusa: “She is perishing of sorrow, entering as she is the period of hoary old age.” In this play also the old pedagogue causes much merriment (1172) to the guests by his unusual assumption of other people’s duties and by his eager fussiness, wpédv/w 7rpda'0'wv (1173). It is hardly too much to say that this busybodiness would not have been tolerated in any one except in an old character. The very endurance on the part of the guests at the banquet of this old stranger’s inter- ference and assumption of duties for which there were regu- larly appointed servants points to a general attitude of com- plaisant endurance of a necessary encumln-ance. Cf. also in this connection (the utter uselessness and worthlessness of age) ll)emophron’s reply to Iolaus when the latter had suggested that he be given to Eurystheus, and that the children go free: "What advantage shall accrue to Eurystheus by the death of an old man? He wants these young Heracli- dze to die.”2 Under (1)) (see p. 34) the pathetic scene at the close of the Bacchae is apt. A feeling of utter helplessness comes over Cadmus when he thinks of his defenseless state now that Pen- theus is dczul—l’entheus, on whom he had leaned for support and defense against the taunts which were likely to be spoken at any time against his age. Cf. lines 1304-25. Of these lines, however, note partimlarly 1319-23. Cf. here the pathetic scene in the Andromeda, where Androm~ cda, after having been rescued by Perseus, is about to leave

1Notwithstanding this general belief that old age was a hated period, and that the work of the old was done, a belief which the old themselves shared in, they yet generally clung tenaciously to life (Alc. 669-70; Sup. 1109-10) on the principle which Euripides so often expresses, that life is sweet to all (Ores. 1523; Her. Fur. 92; Tread. 632- 3) and that we have only one life (A10. 712), which must not be given up needlessly. This explains Pheres’ obstinacy which Admetus could not or would not understand (Ale. 727). 2Herac]. 466-7. 3G The Dramas of Euripides.

her home to become Perseus’ bride. The old parents, realizing their helpless state, beg that both Perseus and Andromeda (or at least Andromeda) remain to care for them in their week old age. Hartung, Vol. II., p. 357, describes the scene thus: “Parentes grandaevi, quamvis salute filiae guaderent, tamen se in limine vitae destitui, orbos relinqui neque habere qui curet et imbecillae senectuti consulat, aegre ferunt. Itaque pater rogat, ut ambo rel, si id fieri minus possit, filia apud parentes maneat: ‘Alui, educavi: id facite gratum ut sit seni.’ ” Note also the violence and contempt which Copreus in the Heraclidze shows to old Iolaus. (Heracl. 67-8). As Copreus says these words he knocks old Iolaus down. (70-1, 75-6.) In the Andromache note the hauteur and insolence which Meuelaus continually displays towards Peleus. (See p. 38.) Note Orestes’ (Electra 553-4) patronizing sneer at the old servant contained in his question to Electra: “Whose slave does this old relic chance to be?” And with this compare Iph. Au]. (311), where Menelaus beats the faithful old servant over the head. And compare also the scene in the (Eneus where old (Eneus tells of the abuse which he daily puts up with from his masters. Among other things he says that he has his head used as a scopus in the game of cottabos. (Hartung, Eurip. Rest, Vol. 1., p. 156.) This danger (to which the old were liable) of being mal~ treated explains in large measure the repeated reference to “childless” old age. They need defenders in age, and if the children whom the old had expected to be these defenders are taken away by a violent or untimely death, old age (always a wretched state) becomes most wretched. Herein lies the sting of Admetus’ repudiation of his father and his exhortation to him to beget, the sooner the better, another son to care for his old age. (Ale. 662-4.) References to this pitiable state of childless old age are especially frequent in the Supplices. Thruout this play this is a prominent thot. Ct. 13, 35, 83-5, 170, 7532-86-97, 800-15, 920 ii, 955 111, 966-7, 1037, et pas. Lines 920-4 may be taken as a good example of all these references: Personal Characteristics of the Old. 37

K02 vfiv H 'ALSas 76v énov E'XH. I] p.6x9ov dwtfas, Eye) 8% yiypoflooxbv 01’": é'xw H TEKO'UU" oi Tdhawu. wa’c‘b‘a. In the Andromache1 this thot is the first one in Peleus’ mind as the body of Neoptolemus is brought on the stage (1174-8). It is repeated in 1205, 1212, 1216, et pas. Very pathetic are lines 612-14, where the old man is recounting to Menelaus his demerits and says: woman; 3’ dwatb‘as 'ypufiq 5017an e’v 36,1105, K'rA. Cf. Ion 618-9: “1 especially pity thy wife, 0 Sire; for she is growing old without children!” In the Hecuba, too, references to childlessness are very common. Polyxena bewails her mother’s fate thus: oi’me'n O'Ol. no.7; c336 ofixére 87‘] yfipg. Sechac'a. Bethany? Hecuba’s plaint finds its crux in this thot.“ Cf. also 514, 810, 821. Talthybius, in pitying Hecuba, says: 0.1771] 8% 3015A»), ypafis 51mm." Of. also the words of the servant girl (069). Cf. also Medea (1395-0), when Medea tells Jason that he will not know what true grief is till he gets old and finds out the sorrows of childless old age. Cf. also Medea’s pathetic references to her impending childless old age (1032-3). In the Troades note line 107 ; also lines 487-8, 599, 1185-6. Cf. Frag. Alcmaeon 77 . This is spoken obviously with a feeling that childlessness in old age is an especially severe punishment for hauteur and insolence. Cf. Frag. Dictys 330, lines 3, 4, 0. In the Protesilaus, Acastus, father of Laodamia, is about to be deprived of his daughter. She is going down to vol- untary death with Protesilaus. Acastus is greatly disturbed at the prospect that “relinquebatur grandaevo parenti orbitas” (Hartung, Eurip. Rest, Vol. 1., p. 273), and he enters into an argument with his son-in-law trying to prevent the sacrifice. Euripides, making use of this need of the old for protection, develops a very touching scene in the Iph. Aul. Iphigenia, pleading with her father for her life, calls up to him the pleas-

ICf. 307-8. 2Hec. 203-4. “Hec. 440. 4Hec. 495. 38 The Dramas of Euripides.

ing fancies which he and she had indulged in during her child- hood days as she used to sit upon his knees with her arms around his neck (1220)———fancies of he' as a happy wife and of him as an old man, feeble and helpless, having no home but hers, and cherished and defended by her tender, loving care.1 RESUME or (a), PAGE 25. This bodily infirmity of the old and its attendant weakness and loss of power, combined with an ardent desire to be young and strong, which we have shown to be a constant and ever- recurrent trait of the old in Euripides, is, as we said in the beginning (p. 25), one of the causes (We have made it the first cause) of that other trait, “garrulity,” which we discuss on pp. 52-00. The old, having lost their virility and force and desir- ing to cover up the lack of it by a bold appearance, were naturally led into much verbosity, hoping by bluster and brag- gadocio to impress others (and themselves) with their much prowess and forcefulness. They, however, deceived no one except themselves, and not always even themselves.2 There is abundant evidence that others, as well as usually themselves, fully realized that “words” (é’vrea) were their chief stock in trade, and that forceful actions for them were impossible. The proof of this may be found at different places in the preceding discussion (pp. 24-37). We repeat here only two especially significant lines from the I-Ier. F1112, one, where old Amphitryon says of himself: misty iii/r0. whip! yitc'iomys $695014” And the other, where the chorus says of itself: e’rrroihpv Ema. perm/5 We will add, however, this other instance. In the Andromache thruout the whole scene where Menelaus and Peleus are on the stage the weakness of the old in finding its expression in loquacity is everywhere prominent. Menelaus exhibits supreme contempt for Peleus, the cause of which is that he is an impotent, talkative old man. ye’pwv, ye’pwv at,” he says with fine scorn; and he immediately adds (670): “Thy jabbering helps

leh. Aul. 1226-32. 2Cf. Frag. A’Eolus 25. (See p. 26, note 9.) 3H. F. 229. 4H. F. 109-10. ﬁAnd. 07S. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 39

me more than holding thy tongue would.” And he plainly and bluntly tells old Peleus that to ‘-‘talk is all he can do.”1 He shows his utter indifference to this chatter-box, as he thinks, by coarsely telling him (689-90): “If you don’t like what I say and do, you can wear your tongue out opposing it for all I care.” In this connection Cf. Frag. Melanippe 512: n’ 3’ (MAG; (pun/9) Kai (mull. ye’pwv o’wfip. i We come now .to the second subdivision. (1)) of page 25: ,i EXCI'L‘AIHLITY or Tnnrnn, Bonnnmxc Sonn'rmns urox Exrnmiu Inascnnnrrr. This trait of character, eXcitz'ibility, imfiurally follows from bodily infirmity and the weakening of the power of self-control. The old were very susceptible to outward environment, impatient of restraint, and fretl’ul and peevish if circumstances did not shape themselves as they desired. An excellent illustration of this trait of the old is found in the Andromacbe. Old Peleus. in his argument with Menelaus, becomes so excited that, after he has threatened to have him and Hermione kicked bodily from the house (708-10), he cannot (he is trembling so) untie the bands that bound Androm- ache‘s hands. He has to call the boy, Molossus, to help him.2 In fact, I’eleus’ excitement and irascibility” are so apparent to all that the chorus, noticing it, utters a gnome to the effect that all old people are irascible and irritable: lira/Liver 7'1. xpfina wpsoflvrdw yévos Kai. 3vmlm'AaK'rov ofvavlufag lino." This excitement of old Peleus is evident from his very first appea 'ance upon the stage, for when he first comes in he excitedly asks three questions, addressed to Menelaus, his servants, and then to Andromache (548-5), non-(5'),,.,.,, without giving

1And. 746. 2And. 717-8, 722-3. Cf. with this Iolaus in the Herael. He cannot control himself sufﬁciently to perform the last sad rites for Macaria (564), and he is completely overcome and falls fainting to the ground when he bids Macaria good-by (602). “Dr. Verrall, Four Plays of Euripides, p. 34, speaks of Peleus as “an honorable and noble man, but of violent temper in his best. days and now long past the age of self-control." *lAnd. 727-8.

40 The Dramas of Euripides.

any of them time to answer. He impatiently chides his servant for leading him so slowly, and excitedly urges him ‘to greater exertions. “It’s no time for slowness,” he says (551-2). Cf. in this connection also the scene in the Heraclidae where old Iolaus, excited and anxious about the war, asks three questions (383) in quick succession of Demophron, and even then does not give him time to answer till he has expressed his own opinion about the probability of the herald’s fulfilling his threat, and also until after he has made two general observations based upon his own experience (381-8). Alcmene also is irascible and excitable. When she first appears upon the stage (645‘), she becomes very excited, for fear that the servant has come to take away the Heraclidae. This excitement is increased (660). Note the peculiar form of her question (661-2) when she finds out the real purpose of the messenger. So on thruout her stay upon the stage. Of. her emotion (86982, 941 ff). And at the very end of the play, because of her excitement, she forgets within a few minutes her promise made in line 1023 to give Eurystheus’ body to his friends; for in line 1050 she orders it thrown to the dogs. Old Iolaus faints away (602) from sheer excitement1 and in the Hecuba, Hecuba is so overcome at the thot of separation from Polyxena that she too faints (438). Cf. also the excitability of the ypafis in the Helen. She too asks three questions of Menelaus (4137-9), and does not wait for an answer. In her intense excitement at finding the stranger persistent she tries to shove Menelaus off by force (445-6). In the Orcstes, Tyndareus becomes very angry at Menelaus for his impiety in holding intercourse with the murderer, Orcstes. I-Ie excitedly repudiates Menelaus’ philosophic justification of his act by telling him bluntly, “Shut up. I’ll not put up with it.”2 To this Menelaus replies: 6,37%] yap 61pm cov Kai. 76 777,011.; 015 o’ozpo'r.a Again, the only effect of Orestes’ defense of himself (544- 604), in which defense he boldly presents his side of the case

101d Iolaus thruout is a good example of the excitability of age. It shows itself best possibly in his garrulity. For this phase of his nature see p. 57. 2Ores. 489. aOres. 490. Personal Characteristics 'of the Old. 41

and contradicts the conclusions of Tyndareus, is to anger1 the old man and to make him the more determined to bring about the death of Orcstes. (See lines 607-9.) And the old man’s whole attitude is so completely that of an irascible and irritable man that When he finally leaves the stage (620) Orestes says: “Begone! I may now, since thou art gone, address Menelaus without fear of boisterous interruptions” (630-1). These words are the more significant inasmuch as Orestes’ attitude toward old Tyndareus was at first that of great respect and awe.2 The old fellow’s harshness and irritability are alone responsible for the change. Agave in the Bacchae, not understanding because of her mental aberration why her desire to offer her son’s head as a sacrifice to the god should be called by Cadmus we’vfios of: perpnrév (1244), attributes his attitude “to the natural moroseness of age!” She says: 039 Bio-Kohl; T5 yfipas dv0pui1row é'qSu er a 1' 7 oppam. v (rKvfipum-ov. / 4 Thruout the Troades the excitement of the old is very marked. Hecuba is continually being led into strange acts and unseemly words. She falls upon the ground and refuses to be helped up (466 iii), and speaks from her excitement words that ill become her. (See p. 23, “Additional Note.” ) The attitude of Andromache and Hecuba to Polyxena’s fate is significant. Hecuba is excitable and distraught; Andromache is grieved, to be sure, yet calm and seeks by persuasion and argument to comfort her. Note her words to Hecuba at the beginning of her speech.5 In the Alcestis, Pheres shows, thruout Admetus’ speech (629-72), such decided symptoms of violent wrath that the chorus says in admonition (674') : «3 wa’i, 71111pr 3% In) wapoEfiI/ys (fipe’va. Another good example of the excitability of the old and of the loquacity which follows from. it is in the Iph. Au]. The old man comes on the stage timidly, thru the half-opened door,

10f. the old man’s anger and scorn when he ﬁrst catches sight of Orestes (479). 2Cf. Ores. 548-9, 460 ff.‘ 3Pa1ey, note to line 1252. 4Bac. 1251-2. 5Tro. 635. 42 The Dramas of Euripides.

to tell Clytemnestra the real state of the case: that her husband is going to sacriﬁce her daughter to Artemis, not marry her to Achilles. He is so excited—he needs much assurance that he will not, be overheard—(862, 863, 806) , that talkativeness gets full control of him. He apostrophizes 715x71 and 7rpo’vota (864) and is so verbose that Achilles, in despair 01." bringing him to composure, gives up the case as hopeless, and says: “I see that we shall have to wait some time before getting at what this man has to tell us; he has so nuuch pret'acing and praying to distract his attention” (865). Of a like nature is the scene in the Hecuba, where old Tal- thybius comes in, sees I-Iecuba on the ground in a faint, and gets so excited that he forgets his mission, falls into a strain of philosophic n'lcdilation of such a teno’ as to be improper for an old man (see p. 24, “.-\dditional Note”), cha 'acteristically 1 gets his grammar mixed up (omits the subject of Kexrﬁo'dac), indulges, also in characteristic style, in tautology—de, pdmv, devb‘v‘y (Hec. 488-500), etc. And Hecubai’ in the contemplation of her woes grows now and again very excited, and bursts out into a series of eXclamations (Hec. 610-133 ct pussim); or she shows her passion by the interlocked order” of her words as when she sees her enemy and his children before her and realizes that it all depends upon her whether she shall wreak vengeance upon him or not. Note also the old servant’s excitement in the Electra when he recognizes Orcstes (56:; iii), and the petulancy of the nurse in the f-Ii}.r}_)olytus (176 iii). It even leads her into a little irreligion (see p. 3, note 0).

1See p. 44. :In the case 01’ Hecuba, however, she exhibits at times a great degree of self-possession. In her plea with Odysseus for the life of Polyxena (239 ff.), and with Agamemnon for help against Polymnestor (760 ft), and in her interview with Polymnestor himself (968 ff.) she presents her claim in masterly manner, cunningly working now upon this and now upon that trait of character in these men. Her self- possession and her arguments, however, are but that other trait of the old, “fertility in concocting schemes," manifesting itself in somewhat modiﬁed form. (For a discussion of this trait see p. 60 it.) And yet even here she is not without evidence of latent excitement which may break out at any moment. Especially is this true in her plea before Odysseus for the life of Polyxena, for the ﬁrst words of Odysseus in his reply are an exhortation to her to ponder the matter with calm and not with angry mind." (Hec. 299-300.) “Hec. 986-8. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 43

In the Phoenix, Euripides makes the excitability of the old the crux of the drama. Anlyntor, the old father of Phoenix, is fanned into a. ﬂame of passion by his mMam’s, whose adulter- ous desires for the young Phoenix had been repelled. The old man, “vehementer exacerbatus"1 and “recenti dolore furens,”1 refuses to listen to reason, but hastens, in spite of a calm and what should have been a convincing denial of his guilt by Phoenix, to inﬂict upon his son severe punishment. At last, when all is over and Amyntor realizes what his old age has led him into, he cries out:

7 A r a w 1~ I n (J) yflpag, OLOV ‘TOLS EXO'UO'LV EL KaKOV.' In the GEneus the excitability of the old (Eneus, when he discovers that the stranger Diomedes is his grandson, is so great that he cannot endure it alone, but calls the chorus to share his joy. Aristophanes ridicules this excitement of old (Eneus in Achar. 855 it.“ Of. also the irascibility of old Phegeus in the Alcmaeon in Psophide when he finds out the deception which Alcmzeon has practiced upon him in relation to the necklace. Hartung (Eurip. Rest, Vol. 1., p. 192) says of this scene: “Vehemen- tissime I’hegei ira exardescit.” In the Dictys so great is the wrath of the old man against his younger brother that the chorus thinks it necessary to reprimand him.“ in the Cyclops the excitability of the old is made to serve a ludicrous turn. This t -ait in Silenus is well shown in the scene between himself and Odysseus, when the latter mentions wine (130). At the mere mention ol’ the wine the old fellow is all aglow, and cries out: “Hurrah! thou hast mentioned the finest thine.” (110). Ct. further his eagerness to know where the wine is (14-1). And when he sees the small skin in which Odysseus is carrying the wine, he is disgusted that it is so small an amount. “Why, that wouldn’t till my hollow tooth!” he says (146). Note his eagerness to get at the wine and his excitement when he gets a whiti’ of it,“ and then a taste.“ His reply to Odysseus’ question as to whether it tasted good is

1Hart., Vol. 1., p. 71. 2Frag. 802. “Hart, Vol. 1., p. 157. +Frag. Dictys 343. 5Cycl. 153. UCycl. 156. 44 The Dramas of Euripides.

characteristic. “Yes; to the tips of my ﬁngers and toes,” he says.1 And when Odysseus suggests that he will give him money too, the old fellow excitedly says: “0, bother on the gold! The wine’s enough 1’” REPETITION, TAUTOLOGY, AND GRAMMATICAL PECULIARITIES. This phase of the character of the old, excitability, unani— fests itself in the dramas of Euripides by repetition, tautology, and grammatical peculiarities in their speech.

Repetition. Heracl. 48, 307, 449, 229, 225, 873; Hec. 59-61, 96, 155-77 (Whole ode), 689-90, 532-3, 710; Her. Fur. 1062, 1068, 1072, 1081, 1187, 1192; Bac. 1216-17; Hip. 355; 1011 735, 738; '1‘1'0. 239, 625; Phoen. 584; Elec. 487; Ale. 722. In the Orestes old Tyndareus repeats in line 625 his threat against Menelaus, spoken first in line 537. I’atin (Etudes sur les Tragiques grec, p. 58, Vol. III.), after mentioning the fact that one of these lines has been thot by scholars “une indis- crete interpolation,” says: “Peut-étre y pourrait-on voir une imitation, assez dans le gout d’Euripide, et dans l’esprit de ce morcean, dos reclttes ordimttrcs (‘t la, coléro ct mptm‘clles a la oiet‘llesse.” Taatology. Heracl. 41, 196, 224, 305-6, 26-7, 320; Hec. 438, 439, 489-90, 499-500, 507, 619, 714-15, 837, 1055; Bac. 198, 1218; Hip. 356, 509; Ion 740-1, 792; Tro. 4853-6, 496, 1242-3; Her. Fur. 1061, 1069; Phaen. 88, 98, 100, 844, 870, 1597-8; Elec. 490; Iph. An]. 42, 115; Cyclops 6; Suppl. 1912; Be]. 7123. Grammatical Pcculiartties. Heracl. 313. azpraL for al’pwfls. After Paley. Murray, following Kirchhofl‘, alters the text without MS. authority. Heracl. 496. Starts with ace. and inf. and changes to another construction in the next line. Heracl. 693. ais- m‘y aevofivra (so-called pendent participle). Heracl. 40. c’yu’) instead of Enofi in agreement with 81:05 yepév- 'row (139). Hec. 489. Subject of «mm-6m omitted.

1Cyc]. 159. 20ycl. 161. __...4'. _._.

Personal Characteristics of the Old. 45 _.~_.....,._..‘..._._. - Hec. 672-3. Mixing of personal and impersonal construction. Exsw should be é’xmv, which Codex V. gives. Hec. 834. Kala); omitted with 3pdo’us‘. Cf. Soph., Ant., 1054, where Tiresias omits Kauai); with Ac’yus. Hec. 887. Mirror should be Arjavov; and dpa'e’vwv, dpasvas- Hec. 970-71. Hec. 1214-15. Subject of c’orvinnv’ is very obscure. Bac. 275-9. He should have said Ame'r-qp Atévva’ds 1'6. Bac. 1245. e’éapyaone’mv probably peculiar. Bac. 1309. Here excitement and grief cause Cadmus to break out into direct address to Pentheus. Ion. 319-21. wpoafins for wponfinv. Ion. 928. aipei Kfin’ dwefavrhdw 4);)er for ai'ponal. 131:" dhhov K121111709. Text is Paley’s. TI‘O. 1209-12. VLKfia'av'raC 0's . . . 0‘01. npoart’drlm for vmn’o‘avrd In . . . erection/(T). Her. Fur. 191. Dat. for gen. case. Her. Fur. 195. 500i. . . . 198. «intram- Phoen. 383. limos 3’ gpwnat, [1.1; n m‘yv «3de (ppe’va. 33098 d‘ xpy’Zw for Séb‘oma ,wb Seiko) afiv dips'va e‘pwrdio’a d‘ xpy'zw- (Paley, note to line.) Cycl. 5. dnqSi yin/av?) ”.01an 30,369 for [1.01an dopt‘); 76v ‘ynycvu’w. Cyc. 558. Val p.21. AL” 017 for 017, mi 1'51! Adz. Suppl. 174-5. «5v alt-a..- e’xpfiv (after Paley). Suppl. 748. Kevai ought to be inserted before mihas. Med. 106. dpxi}; éfacpouevov=aipéucvov {f dpxfis. (POI‘BOII quoted by Paley in note to line.) The examples given under this topic, Repetition, Tautology, and Grammatical Peculiarities, are not intended to be exclu- sive, only directive. We come now to the third subdivision, (a) (p. 25). A CONVICTION THAT TO GIVE ADVICE WAS THE NECESSARY DUTY or OLD AGE. This trait of the old, this feeling1 that to give admonition was their preeminent prerogative, is much in evidence in Euripides. This prerogative of the old is also in large measure recognized by the younger characters, for it is not uncommon for the young to refer matters to the old for their advice and

loténeada 6' 5i; opovsiv, says old ZEolus, Frag. 25. 46 The Dramas of Euripides. judgment.1 Sometimes, however, headstrong youth repudiates this advice and takes gleeful joy in going counter to it. Gen- erally, tho, the advice of the old is followed; but whether followed or not, it is always abundantly offered. A good example of this admonitory t'ait oi.’ the old is seen in the Phoenissac. Jocasta, Tiresias, and Creon, the chief old characters of the drama, are fairly bubbling over with advice. Jocasta is firmly convinced that her age makes her preeminent- ]y fitted to be an adviser. Note her words to Eteocles (528-3 ). Note also line 460. The chorus of young Phoenician women also believe in this power of .locasta to give good advice. for they say to her at the beginning of the conference between the brothers: (rev é’pyov ufircp 'ondo'r-r), he'yew Tofova'de #15901); of; Seahhdgas re'Kva..'Z And the talks she makes to the boys (452-68, 528-85) bristle with advice. She glides from one admonition to another in quick succession. In fact, her propensity to indulge in exhortation makes her two speeches exceedingly verbose and garrulous. This, at any rate, is the cited: 01’ her words upon Ete- ocles, for he says (592): “Do go away, mother, and free me from your lengthy eth'tations.” Creon also comes to give advice to ilslteocles upon the plan of the battle,” and it is his advice that turns the headstrong young king, who is bent on rushing to battle instantly (712), to prudence and discretion. And when he finally does go to battle, he goes with a prayer to “caution” (7 82-3). It was old Tiresias, so he tells us, who tried to dissuade the two boys from their wicked conduct towards their father (878-9). in the Bacclne, Agave, recognizing that to give advice was the right of the old, turns to old Cadmus with these words: “My son must be advised, and you, Father, are the one to do it.” (1256-7 . Also in the earlier portions of the play it is old Cadmus (and Tiresias; cf. especially 309-13) who under-

11n the Melanippe, Helen, senex decrepitus, grandaevus pater 213011, is summoned by the latter to ask his advice about the strange sight of cow and bull nursing and guarding children in the ﬁeld. (Hartung, p. 117.) 2Phoen. 444-5. :iPhoen. 706. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 47

takes to advise Pentheus. At the conclusion of Tiresias’ speech (266-327) Cadmus says: w ’ WILL, n (<0.th a O’OL Tupwtag / wupyvza’ev. I 1 In the Ion it is the old pedagogue who acts as the mentor of Creusa at every point. In fact, he had been summoned by her for this very purpose (728-9, 7 31-2). When she first hears of the sorrowful outcome (to herself) of the embassy of Delphi, and she is giving :l:'orth loud lamentations at her fate (762-7), the old man steps in with very timely advice (768-71). It is he also who, towards the end of his long and garrulous speech (808-31, 836-56), first reminds her that her womanly nature nrust assert itself and avenge these wrongs (843-46). It is he, too, to whom Creusa turns in her distress for advice when she is at a loss as to the exact: means she should adopt to accomplish her ends. She says to him ( 971) : 'rL’ ydp ,u.e Spar; dwapL'a. rt) Sua'rvxciv. , Another excellent: example of the propensity of the old to give advice, based upon opinions which their longer experience justifies them in forming,2 is seen in the Andromache. Old 1 Peleus stops his quarreling with Menelaus long enough to say that he used to keep urging” Neoptolemus not to marry Her- mione, and adds a word of advice to suitors in general (019- 23): “I used to keep telling Neoptolemus,” he says, “not: to marry your daughter or, for that matter, any wicked woman. Ho, ye suitors,” he adds, “keep this well in mind: Marry only the daughter of a good woman 1” In the Heraclidie, when the oracles all declared that a maiden must be sacrificed to Persephone (408) in order to propitiate the gods, Demophron in great uncertainty goes to Iolaus and asks his advice (420-2). And tho the old fellow proposes an impossible plan which Demophron has to reject, yet the king feels such confidence in Iolaus’ ability along this line that he asks him to try again (471-4). I’heres in the Alcestis, angry as he is with Admetus, and

lBac. 330. 28ee pp. 49-50. ”In fact, the old man seemed to harp on this theme. At the end of the play (1279—82) he recurs to it and expands it with a good deal of vehemenee. The old fellow’s persistent nagging was probably so irritating that Neoptolemus out of sheer vexation did the contrary. ‘ 48 The Dramas of Euripides.

sarcastic as he has just been, glides by the force of an old man’s habit into a monitory strain (703-5) . In the Supplices it is fEthra’s bold advice (307 if.) that persuades her hesitating son to espouse the cause of the wretched women. Theseus responds to her advice thus: 6pc?) 3% Kiwi raiiQ’ {imp #5 vou9erefs.1 In the Troades, Hecuba declares that it was she who used continually to advise Helen during the course of the war to return to her husband and thus relieve the situation. Note the repetition of the words, KaL’Toc 'y’ évouae'row 0'6 WORM. trekking? Hecuba’s vehemence seemed, no doubt, to Helen the same kind of nagging as Peleus’ did (see footnote 3, p. 47) to Neoptole- mus. At any rate, it produced the same result. In the Her. Fun, Megara appeals to old Amphitryon as to how to save themselves.“ She asks his judgment of her new plan,“ and the old men of the chorus say to Amphitryon: 05V 3% 70611113951! axmrsi‘v 57m; dtéo'a 1'31; 'rv'xas‘, 'Apcbrrpiiwvﬁ In the Cyclops, when Odysseus is trying to persuade Poly- phemus to remain in the cave and get drunk (536-8), and when Cyclops wants to remain out for boisterous revel (537), he turns to old Silenus, who has been standing by, and asks his advice (539). He takes Silenus’ advice and goes within. (Cf. 272-4.) Here Cyclops trusts Silenus in preference to the whole chorus of young Satyr-s. In the Electra, Orcstes appeals to the old man for advice as to how he shall avenge his father-”s death.“ He does this again in line 612, and again in line 618. In the Orcstes, Tyndareus, the old man, plays the customary mile of censor, for he connnands and threatens Menelaus to have nothing to do with Orcstes (622-6). And further on in the play we are told that it was he who kept prompting the one who, at the meeting of the citizens, advocated the death sentence for Orcstes and Electra (915-16).

1Sup. 337. 2Tro. 1015. 3H. F. 81. 4H. F. 278-9. 5H. F. 314-5. tlElectra 599-600. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 49

In the Iph. Aul. the old man plays the part of adviser and tries to console Agamemnon in his present distress (28 if. at pas). It is the old man, too, who chides Menelaus in an ad- moni tory strain.1 Note in the (Eneus that the old fellow, as soon as he gets a little over his excessive joy at ﬁnding that Diomedes is his grandson, lapses forthwith into a series of exhortatory gnomes on ﬁlial affection, etc. Hartung, in describing the scene, says (Eurip. Rest, Vol. I., p. 157) : “Deinde (i. e., postquam ad so- cietateni laetitiae chorum invitavit) multus l'uit in laudando adhortandoque nepote.” In the Dictys we find old Dictys encouraging Danae with bits of philosophic wisdom. Hartung speaks of him (Vol. I., p. 366) as one “qui, ut senex gravis et sapiens, philosophia pro inedicina animi uti didicerit (didicit).” Of the whole tragedy he says: “Inerat . . . ei copia praeceptorum utilissiinorum et sententiarum gravissimarum” (Vol. I., p. 372), due no doubt to the pervading presence of an old man.

EXPLANATION or AND A CONSEQUENT FROM THE BELIEF THAT IT WAS THE Panuooa'rivu on THE OLD To Give ADVICE To Tnu Youxe. This clmracteristic of the old, this belief that to give advice was their especial prerogative, was based upon the assumption that their longer life had given them: a greater experience, and had therefore especially qualified them for the discharge of such a function. In the Hippolytus the nurse gives as a reason for her moralizing (252) her experience and long life. Cf. also H. F. 801-6. In the Heraclidaé, Iolaus, after a piece of his philosophy, explains that he draws his maxims from his experience.2 In the Peleus, when Peleus and Neoptolemus are discussing the best means for punishing their enemies, old Peleus ﬁnds fault with Neoptolemus’ suggestions and remarks upon the experience of the old.”

II. A. 303. Cf. in this connection the role of adviser to Phaedra which the nurse plays thruout in the Hippolytus, 204-7, 214, 288 ff., 467, 473, etc. 2Herac1. 5. :xFrag. 622. 4 50 The Dramas of Euripides.

In the Supplices, Theseus responds to Adrastus’ confession that he had followed the advice of the young men, thus (161) : Edi/vat'av é'a'wevo’as til/1" efifiovMas, implying thereby that soBovAt’a must not be sought in the young, but is the prerogative of the old. In flEthra‘s plea to her son (Sup. 297-331) she displays in marked manner the shrewdness1 of the old and the clear insight of character which they had gained by long observation, for she skillfully plays upon the chord which is most sensitive in the young. that of pride and vanity. She warns Theseus (and this is the point she elaborates in one way or another) to be careful lest he should gain a reputation for being valiant at a boar hunt, but cowardly when real deeds of valor are demanded (314-17). Note also, in this connection, the admonitory right of the old, the Fragments. Bellerophontes 202:}, Melanippe viucta 511. i l One consequent, of the assumption that the old had a l x. greater experience was the feeling that gnomes and senten- i tious remarks2 were especially (‘>pp01'tuiie when spoken by them. There are thirty-live old people to ninety-nine young characters” in the dramas (plus those in the fragments).

1Thus it is the old who because of their greater experience are put forward to explain away the verbiage of mythology (Bac. 295-7, Tro. 969 if. etc). tho clinging tenaciously to religion. uEuripides was particularly fond of sententions remarks. For this he was perhaps equally praised and blamed by the ancients. Aristotle thinks him the master of wayinluyia (l-Iotinger: Euripides und seine Sen- tenzen, p. S). and Aristophanes (Ran. 949) complains that with Eurip- ides women and slaves, old folks and maids know how to philosophize. VVit-h this of. also I’lntarch de Rect. Rat). And. C. 13: [at/Iomrn d’ in» 71;. . . Eivpmidov (it 71):: ZaZIav. ”The following is the number of the sententious remarks found in each play, together with the number of the characters, old and young. The choruses are omitted, since their function was chieﬂy admonitory, sententious, etc. The gods are also left out. Wise sayings would naturally become them: Gnomes by Gnomes by Old People. Young People. Young People. Old People. Bac...... 2 5 5 4 Hec...... 3 5 6 11 Elec...... 1 5 25 b' Ores...... 2 7 22 4

Personal Characteristics of the Old. 51

These thirty-ﬁve old people speak one hundred and forty-four gnomes to two hundred and ninety-two spoken by the ninety- nine younger characters—that is, twenty-six per cent of the cha 'acters speak thirty-three per cent of the sententious remarks. In the expression ol’ these gnomes and sententious remarks by the old we find that Euripides more or less closely observed the following rule: A LON; srnnen (AND vnnr or'rl-ix A SHORT oxn 'roo) or .-\N OLD CHARACTER is USUALLr BEGUN AND uxnnn (on errnnn anon): on nxnnn) wrrn oxu on noun snx'rnx'rious Ill-1M.\RKS.1 In the I’hmu. Jocasta begins her speech (452-68), and both begins and ends speech beginning with line 528 with a sententious remark. The old pedagogne ends his long colloquy

Gnomes by Gnomes by Old People. Young People. Young People. Old People. I. T ...... 6 19 .. And...... 1 7 15 5 A10...... 1 6 11 4 Herac...... 2 5 S 8 Sup...... 3 5 21 18 Tl'O ...... 2 4 4 13 Ion ...... 1 4 20 4 Rhe...... S 8 . Med...... 4 5 19 7 Cyel...... 1 2 S 4 Hip...... 2 4 21 15 He] ...... 2 6 24 6 H. F...... 1 4 12 8 I. A...... 2 5 25 Phoan...... 5 6 19 23 From this table it is seen that in only five plays, Ores, Ion, Med., He]., and I. A., is the percentage between the number of young characters and their gnomes greater than that between the number of old characters and their gnomes. ISince formulating this statement, Hofinger‘s work, Euripides 11nd seine Sentenzen, has come into my hands. His answer to the question, “We bringt Euripides seine Sentenzen an?” coincides so closely with my statement that literary dependence would seem implied. He does not, however, notice the predilection of the old for gnomes. See his work, pp. 11 and 12. 52 The Dramas of Euripides. upon the walls with Antigone with a gnome (200-1), as also Tiresias his long speech (930-59). So also Creon (1310-21). Cf. also Bac. 266-7, 1326-7; Ion 854-6, 1045-7; Hec. 294-5, 628-0, 844-5, 1187-94; And. 639-41, 693-703, 724-6; Heracl. 15, 181-3, 297-9, 327-8, 458-60; Ale. 627-8, 703-5; He]. 711-15, 731-3, 744-57 (one IOng reflection); Sup. 162, 191-2, 331, 734-6 (old Iphis is on the stage only long enough to speak 56 lines, yet 30 of these are devoted to philosophic reflections of the most pronounced type; cf. 1080-1114) ; Tro. 466, 509-10, 1203-6; H. F. 57—9; Elec. 605-7; Hip. 480-1.

GARRULITY. We now come to that trait itself of the old, garrulity,1 which is, as we have said (p. 25), the resultant of these other traits, “feebleness of body,” “irascibility of mind,” and “admonitions to the young,” which we have been discussing. Much of (a) (pp. 25-39), (12) (pp. 39-45), and (0) (pp. 45- 52) could with propriety be placed here, and must be interpreted as being illustrative of the garrulous trait of the old. We conﬁne this particular topic, however, to a discussion of some of the most noteworthy cases of the garrulity and loquacity of the 01d characters. An excellent example of this trait of the old, garrulity, is the speech of the old man in the Ion (808-31; 836-56). His tongue fairly runs away with him, and his “imagination thru- ' out the scene travels far beyond the previous brief statement of fact by the chorus.”2 This brief statement of fact by the chorus was: First, that Apollo has given to Xuthus as son (774) him whom he should chance to meet as he left the temple (787).

lLallier, De 121 Condition de la Femme, p. 210, tho speaking on an entirely different line from our present one, cites from Menander (ex. inc. fab. fr. 17) an interesting passage, Which he thus gives: “Quel ennui de tomber au milieu d’une repas de famille! Le pere prend 1a coup et commence 1a conversation . . .; ensuite c’est in mere, puts la. grand’mere qui radote, puis un vieillard a la voix cassée, le pere de la grand’mere, que la vieille appelle ‘mon bon ami;’ lui cependant fait a tout le monde de petits signes de téte." 2Bayﬂeld, Ion, note to line 830. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 53

Second, that this had happened to be the young attendant of the temple, whom Xuthus had subsequently named Ion (795- 802). With this as a basis, the old man, led on by his excitement and by his innate talkativeness, after a long preface (808- 814), builds up quite a circumstantial tale of cause and se- quence. According to the old fellow’s imagination Xuthus had secretly proposed after his marriage with Creusa to beget children by another woman (815-16); that he then gave his child to Apollo (820) to rear, and when the child had had time to grow to manhood (823) he persuades Creusa to accompany him to Delphi, ostensibly to ask relief from continued childlessness (824), but in reality (cunning fox that he was, 826) to get his own son and to lead him back to Athens (828) and then to crown him king (836) ; that the accidental meeting and the accidental name were in fact no accidents at all, but well-matured and cunning plans (826, 830-1). “It is remarkable that we are not told by what name Ion was known before meeting his father.”1 The old man then launches out into a more or less detailed statement of what Xuthus ought to have done and what Creusa must do, getting in, in passing, several gnomes and sententious remarks—the whole representing a remarkable instance of the garrulity ot‘ the old.2 The above may be more graphically expressed thus: What the old fellow knew was true: (a) Loxias promised a son to Xuthus (774). (b) The son was 110w a young man (780), and was he whom Xuthus should meet as he went out from the temple (787-8). (0) The son had turned out to be the temple attendant (795). What he that [was true: (a) Premeditated insult and exile for himself and Creusa.

lBayﬁeld, Ion, note to line 830. 2With this compare the similar scene in the Orestes (615 ft), where old Tyndareus, confessing that he is angry (608), is led by his frenzied imagination to enumerate the many things which Electra had whispered into the ear of Orcstes, urging him to kill his mother- the dreams, the lecherous couch, etc. The it all may be true, and probably was true (Cf. Ores. 1236; Elec. 967), the old man has had no opportunity to ﬁnd out whether it is true or not. He assumes it and garrulously states it as fact. 54 The Dramas of Em'ipidcs.

(2)) Secret amours of Xuthus after his marriage with Creusa when he saw that she was sterile (816-18). (0) These amours were with slaves (819). (d) Child sent to Delphi to be reared (820). (0) Child reared as devotee of Apollo, so as 'to escape detec- tion (821-2). (1‘) An embassy to Delphi with crafty intent (823-4). (9) A false name to cover a false act (830-1). (h) This slave’s son to be set up as lord of the realms. (:1) Details of the action Xuthus should have followed (839- 42). (j) Exhortation to revenge (843 E12). (76) Sententious remark (848 (1‘1). (1) Readiness to help (850 iii). (my) Sententious remark (854). Another good example of the garrulity of the old is seen in the Phoenissze, where J ocasta undertakes to bring about a reconciliation between her two sons (452-68, 528-85). Begin- ning with a gnome (452-3) to the effect that “haste and justice are in no sense allied,” she passes to a long harangue upon the need of those who seek reconciliation to look one another in the eye (461-4). Having thus cleared the deck for action, so to speak, she proceeds, after her two sons have spoken, to a refutation of their claims. She begins with a declaration that age is eminently fitted to give advice (528-9), then passes to an excoriation of qSLAO'rL/il'a (531 if), thence to a very wordy encomium of Zaéms, in which she pays her respects to To-nior- row, Day, and Night; thence to an analysis of rupavm’s (549 ft.) and to a consideration of the transient nature of wealth. This to Eteocles and a like, the not quite so long a rambling, t0 Polyneices. In it all,.however, she gives not one pertinent .suggestion as to the how the two boys should become recon- ciled. Her excessive garrulity has clouded the issue, and her words have little or no real significance. It is no wonder that Eteocles, bewildered by his mother’s loquacity, says: “Mother, this is no place for lengthy speeches. The time is flying by.” (588-9.) ' This tendency of Jocasta to untimely talk and discussion is also well seen in the long stichomythy between herself and Personal Characteristics of the Old. 55

Polyneices beginning with line 388. This dialogue Jocasta begins by setting forth first a philosophical question for discussion: What is deprivation of country? n’ 76 arépwgal. aarpz’b‘os; 7) Kaxov ,u.éya.1 It would seem that here at least, when all parties are in such unpleasant straits, she would repress her loquacious tendency and confine herself to the particular needs of the occasion and indulge in no excessive questions or remarks. Not so, however, for she leads the talk into many odd and peculiar chan- nels. _ Also at the end of this same play, when Euripides introduces (Edipus for dramatic effect,2 he extends the scene beyond all necessary limits by “tacking on to no purpose a wordy ode.”" In the long speech of Tiresias (Bac. 266-327) we have another good example of the prolixity of the old. In a wordy preamble the old seer delves lengthily into mythology (302, 275 if, 286 [12), into etymology (276, 293-5), into psychology (303-4), into prophesyings (306-9), into argument by analogy (319-21). In the midst of all this extra talk he happens to get in (309-13) the real point, exhortation to Pentheus to adopt a different attitude toward this new divinity. In the Hecuba we find another fifio’cs (585 it), which well displays the loquacity of the old. Hecuba has just been told of Polyxena’s death. Her daughter is still lying on the mound where she has been sacrificed, with fresh gaping wounds which need attention, and a lifeless body which should be washed" and anointed for burial. We should suppose that a mother under such circumstances would rush instantly to these duties first and moralize and talk afterwards. It is not so, however, with Hecuba. She indulges in many lamentations upon the succession of sorrows with which she is engulfed (585-90), then she reflects upon the ever constant nature of man (592 if.) . This opens an interesting field of investigation; and forgetting, at least temporarily, all about her unburied daughter, she

lPhoen. 388. '-‘See Dramatic Characteristics, p. 90. 2Aristoph. in his baddest; says: 6 ,uer' (11157}; ddoléaxov Oldirrov; npoaéppan'ral drakevﬁg. It is “to no purpose" it not to develop this trait of loquacity in the old. 56 The Dramas of Euripides.

launches out into a discussion of the cause of this. Of a truth these are “ill-timed reflections.”1 Hecuba herself realizes all this, for she says: Kai mira‘név 3i] v05; éréfevaev #dTflV-fl' And yet, notwithstanding her own realization that these reflections are “shot out in vain,” she recurs within two lines to further ill-timed observations about the lawlessness of armies and navies (606 ill). In all this Hecuba is yielding primarily to the spirit of garrulity inherent in the old. They must indulge this propensity even when they themselves realize, as in this case (603), that actions, not words, are imperative.” And even after she has concluded (618) her commands to the dpxata. Mir/us, she bursts out into a series of exclamations and sententious remarks which serve more fully to bring out her excitable ant garrulous nature. Hecuba displays this trait of garrulity thruout. Her appeal to Agamemnon (786-845) is excessively and unnecessarily long. Lines 812-32 could easily be omitted. They add nothing to, but rather detract, from the force of her plea. For example, moralizing about was (813 ft.) is inane. Lines 821-23 merely repeat 808-11; her appeal to venereal pleasures (826-32) even she herself feels is wide of the mark (824-5). Even if line 833 followed directly 811 (i. e., if 812—32 were omitted), the fifim would still be long and verbose. For the impression old Peleus in the Andromache, in his excitement and tlurr , makes upon his fellow-actors and their characterization of him see page 38. In the Helen the messenger, the an unimportant character and having but little opportunity to speak, takes advantage of every opportunity he has to display his garrulity. For example: He is commissioned by Menelaus (737) to carry a message to his companions on the shore. The old fellow, instead of obeying instantly, pauses to give vent to a long and rambling meditation (744 if.) on the vanity of oracles, the remissness of Calchas and Helenus, the proper subjects for

IDecharme, p. 40. 2Hec. 603. 3Decharme (p. 41), observing this ill-timed [277mg of Hecuba’s, assigns the reason for it to an intention on the part of the poet “to please an audience that reasons and is fond of subtleties.” Persona-l Characteristics of the Old. 57

prayer, and ends by giving his concept of success in life. Also prior to this the old fellow had displayed his tendency to talk. When he hears of Helen’s identity (709-10), he breaks out into a long speech (711-33, supposed to be one of jubilation) in which moralizings1 are interspersed with more or less inapt references to the long past. Old Iolaus in the Heraclidzc gives on every hand evidences of the garrulity which is inherent in the old. He is excessively verbose, and cannot speak, it seems, without letting his talkativeness run away with him. An example of this t'ait is seen in his speech of thanksgiving to Demophron when the latter has announced his intention of giving the Heraclids an asylum. The old man’s joy knows no bounds. He bursts forth into a fulsome eulogy (with pointed reference to lj)emophron) of glorious birth and its sufficiency in times of stress (2! 7 303). With great excitement he then verbosely calls upon the two . parties to the t~ansaction to shake hands (307-0). He follows this with a long exhortation to the children, if they ever get back to their country, to enter into an everlasting treaty of peace with Athens (310). And then, in the very excess of joy and excitement, he declares in grandiose style (320-36) his fixed intention not only of singing l.)emophron"s p “aises in this world, but of sprlading abroad in the realms of death the glorious tidings of Demophron’s 1nagn:mimity.‘-’ Another good example of lolaus’ garrulity is seen in his Mm; beginning with >127. Demophron had asked his opinion (420) as to how the decree of the gods that a maiden must die could be met. Instead of answering the question tersely and concisely as the exigencies of the time demand—the enemy is already encamping on the borders of the land (380) spying out the best read by which to make the incursion (305)—he bursts out into ﬁgurative language and compares his plight to shipwrecked mariners who are dashed onto a reef and almost saved, only to be carried again far out to sea and lost (427-33). This comparison, pretty and apt enough as it is

1Rassow says of the old man: Philosophandi est amantissimus, p. 15, de Euripideorum nuntiorum narrationibus. 2Paley is quite right when he speaks (note to line 429) of Iolaus as being “profuse in his thanks.” 58 The Dramas of Euripides.

but inopportune because of the stress of circumstances, does not bring even with its end the advice Demophron wants. A long ha 'angue follows, interweaving regret and unfulfilled hopes (133), praise of the king, protestations of eternal grati- tude to him (438), with lamentations over the fate of the boys (439), and of the good dame Alcmene (147) and of himself (449). Finally, after all this preamble, he bethinks him of Demophron’s request: and at last comes to the point. Note ‘Etlira’s rambling preface to her plea to her son (Sup. 207-300). Note further that in Ad 'astus’ funeral oration, lines 007-8 are a tautology on line .002. In the Troadcs note Hecuba’s response (080 it.) to Androm- ache’s consolatory [Same (634—83). Instead of something short and to the point, she prefaces what: she has to say with a long (080-03) description of a picture representing a storm at sea which she had once seen and had described to her (087), and this too in spite of the fact that she tells us her grief has taken away her power of speech (00-1-5) ! Heculm’s reply (903- 1032) is (me-fifth as long again as Helen’s defense of herself (911-05), itself verbose enough. It contains eleven more lines than Helen’s speech—that is, Hecuba, who is taking up each point of Helen’s defense, elaborates upon them more lengthily than Helen had done upon the original points. In the Her. Fur. old Amphitryon characterizes himself as an empty sound,1 and he lives up to this self-characterization in excellent wise. Among other instances of this we may note the following: When about to die, as he thinks, he wants to bid the chorus good-by. Instead of doing this directly in a few well—chosen words, he takes oc‘asiOn to chide Zeus on his apparent neglect of the Heraclidze (408-500) 5 he then phi- losophizes on the brevity of life, the need of enjoyment, the change of fortune, his own sad state (503-12). At last he gets to the good-by (512-13). In the Cyclops, Silenus is the loquacious old 'frellow we should expect to find. He is typical in this as in every other respect. His fluency of speech is well illustrated in his wonderful oath (202-8),2 in his long meditation on the delights of wine (163-

1Her. Fur. 228-9. 2See Religious Trait, p. 9. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 59

7—1), in his fertile imagination of what: Odysseus had said about: the Cyclops (232-40), etc. In the Elect -a, the the old servant comes in all putting and blowing (487) and tired out, he has breath enough to enumerate with much t'ullness all the supplies he has brought—a kid, myrtle. cheese, wine (494-9). And after a short. break of five lines he describes with great accuracy of detail his journey to the tomb of Agamemnon (508-23). In the Iph. Au]. the opening lines (148), which some have thot spurious because 0!" their content, are, in the light of the attributes of the old. natural and proper. For it we remember that one of the chief t 'aits ol' the old people of Euripides .is their garrulity, love of meditation, etc., we find little dit- ticulty in understanding "the rambling conversation of the old man and Agamemnon on the time of night ((3-11), the disad- umtages of rank ( 162(5), the necessity of contentment” (3 3)," etc. This "rambling conversation,” which has given some commentators much trouble. makes the scene very characteristic of Euripides and gives the exact setting we should expect to find in any scenes of our poet’s dramas in which an old person is one of the leading characters. In the Hippolytus the old nurse of Phaedra is a talkative, philosophizing body. Note her excessive moralizings at: the bedside of her sick mistress2 (117-98) ; note also the verbosity, due to her excitement, of lines 353-61, etc.

lEngland, Introduction to play, p. xxiii. uPaley says (note to line 177) these moralizings ”are out of time and place.” Harry (Introduction to Hippolytus, p. xxxii.) says “they are not altogether suited to the character of a rpo¢6y.” He says further that Euripides “fails to characterize sharply enough.” Should we not rather say that, in representing this old person as a garrulous and moralizing character, he was characterizing very sharply? Especially does this prove true when we compare with the mood; in the Hip. the T/JOf/Iég‘ in the Medea. This latter is the same kind of garrulous and re- flective person. In the prologue of 48 lines, four of which may be spurious, she indulges in not less than three distinct bits of philosophic reflections (14-15; 34-35; 48). Moreover, in addition to this, she gives with much repetition the results of her experience and observation (38, 39), a thing the old like to do: flapeia ydp (ppm (38) she repeats in

56w}; 78m (44). Also é‘yq'JBa. n’yuae (39) is repeated in

:gm—.~—_—A_..V‘:l_e :34- (it) The Dramas of Euripides.

A significant: passage along this line—love of talk in the senile character—occurs in the Medea. Where the old pedagogue tells us that the old men of the city habitually frequent the parks, play games, and gossip. It was from such a gossiping band of maac’mm that he first heard 01’ the impending edict of exile against Medea and her children}- VVe may note here also old (Eneus, in the play of that name. The declaring very vehemently that he has not the time to talk to the strangers, Diomedes and Sthenelus, yet when once started, excusing himself for his loquacity by the reflection, 795 8?: Snowxofirn' mu; wepvrrov 75 Ae’éaz, Kd-IrOKAaiioaofiaL mihw, he dilates at great length upon the many evils he daily endures. Note also that the old man, under the excitement of the discovery of the identity of his grandson, lapses into a lengthy laudatio et adhortatio nepotis.2 FERTILITY IN II)EVISING SCHEMES. The next trait: of the old which we may notice is their won— derful fertility in devising ways and means to meet any emergency which arises. What Euripides says of women, woAAds (”iv eiipow Mnxamig' yvvi] yap st,” he undoubtedly thot a trait also of the old; for everywhere" when perplexity arises an old character, it’ any one is at hand, is the one who suggests (their advice is generally asked, Elec. 598) a plan for the solution of the difiiculty. - This is very natural, and follows necessarily from that trait: which we have

ohm finding )'E ovhﬁalriw Exﬂpuv r/g‘ aim] mMivumr ohm‘m (44—45). Moreover she is everywhere at garrulous moralizer. Cf. 119—30; 190- 200. Her loquacity is even recognized by the old pedagogue himself; for he sharply chides her for standing outside, near the gate, talking to herself (50-51). lMed. 67-69. BEurip. Rest, Hartung, Vol. I., p. 157. “And. 85. Ct‘. i—iip. 480-1. Also cf. Frag. Danae 323. 4Exceptions are very few. In the Helen it is Helen who proposes the scheme (1049 ft.) which is to save them from the clutches of Theoclymenus. Menelaus (note that he was a young man; had he been an old man he would have been more successful) had tried in vain to think of something that would do (1039-40; 1043-4). In the Orcstes, Pylades proposes the scheme to humiliate Menelaus (1098 ff.), which Electra, a woman, enlarges and perfects (1189 ff.).

. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 61

already discussed, the feeling that the old were especially able to give advice (pp. 45-52) ; for the advice which the old gave would naturally (and we ﬁnd it so) be joined with suggestions as to how to act in the matter in hand. The old too felt this power of theirs, this ability to devise ways and means to meet any emergency, for they are everywhere found expressing supreme conﬁdence in their mental acumen and quick-wittedness. In the Ion the old man says, as he comes hobbliug in (712) : (’30,; 75 7017 #0859 ‘uév ,Bpasu, n) 701'} 3% rod raxii. In the Iph. Au]. the old man there has the same opinion of himself. (See page 31 for Greef. I. A. 4-5.) In the Medea /< the old pedagogue sarcastically vaunts his knowledge and shrewdness over the nurse’s. He says to her:

del. 'YLYI'OGO'KGIS 7685 039 mis TL; ail'rc‘)!’ 'roil 776mg uti/\on 950ml} Also in the Iph. Aul. we are told that old Tyndareus, because of his shrewdness of mind2 (mmvﬁ dwarf), got the better of the suitors of Helen (55-60). And the wpéaﬂvs in this play easily sees thru the trick of Agamemnon in summoning Iphigenia and draws from him a confession of his real intentions (133).3 Old Amphitryon in the H. F., the Megara is all cast down and discouraged, refuses to give up hope. He says to her (1)1) : (this Tag e’Am’Sas. He feels his own power to plan, and consoles

1Med. 85-6. 20f. ZEoleus, Frag. 25, where old onlus says: 1101'); d’ m'm éueorw, aid/1560a d‘ 515 {ll/IOI'EZ'U. ”In strange contrast with the keenness of intellect and shrewdness everywhere displayed by the old is the obtuseness of the old man in the Ion. He does not understand what Creusa is getting at, even tho she had said she had married Apollo against her will (941), until she bluntly says: “I am a mother” (947). Cf. also the nurse in the Hip., who cannot divine what Phaedra means. Note also Iolaus in the

V Heracl. He cannot remember where he had met and seen the ﬂagrimu _....

__ before (638). This is the more noteworthy inasmuch as line 45 leads us to suppose that Hyllus has not been long away. These cases of

mental inertness on the part of the old serve to bring out their failing «.mmmm. powers and intensify the pathos of the scene. (See Dramatic Traits, 8511’.) Cf. also here the upéoﬁvc in the Elec. His schemes seem so frivo-

._.___.._.. lous to Electra that she ﬁnds in them the corroboration of her long-

felt' fears that the old man was losing his mind (568). .-‘_-.,_..<-_ 62 The Dranms of Euripides. himself with the thot that “ill luck, like tempests, cannot con- tinue always” (101%). We find a similar scene in the Troades shmving the resilience of the old because of their confidence in themselves and in their ability to plan and scheme. Andromache is in despair and wants to die. She has not even one hope left (681-3). Old Hecuba, however. hopeful to the last, devises a scheme and urges a diplomatic plan—obedience to her new husband with the end in view of saving Astyanax. who some day may re- build Troy ((397-705). The old are seldom "alight off their guard. Old Amphitryon, again in the II. F., is ready with a plausible excuse when Lycus asks him to go in and bring out Mcgara and her children. His crafty purpose is. of course, to get Lycus to go in himself and thus meet the waiting Hercules (720-1; cf. also 704-6. 707- 11). In the Electra it is the old man who. in the dialogue between himself and Electra. suggests all the ways whereby a recognition of Orcstes might be ell'ccted: First, C(lllll'lill‘lllg' the lock of hair (520); second. comparing the st'anger's foot prints with Electra’s (532-4) ; third. a woven garment (539-40). The insufficiency of these plans. due to the excitement of the old man, in no wise affects the point we are hulking.l - They bring out, whether apt or not. the womlerful fertility of the old in suggesting plans, a fertility which is recognized even in this old man; for in spite of his crazy notions (5138) his advice is asked the first thing when Orcstes and Electra came to a serious consideration of their future actions (598; ($18). And except when Electra suggests the way to accomplish the (1 mill of Clytemi'icstra (“.47 ff.) it is the old man who suggests. after he once comes upon the stage, all the schemes in the play— the way to take vengeance on ngisthus, etc. ((311)). In the Ion it is the old man who suggests to Creusa various

JHartung, Eurip. Rest, Vol. 11., p. 309, calls attention to the fact that in the Choephori of {Eschylus Electra is taken in by wild schemes for identification and remarks: ”Ad seuem . . . a virgine credulitatem transtulit Euripides ideo, illum, “ex vanis rebus spem captare” minus, quam ﬁliam Agamemnonis, dcdecere arbitrans."

a- Personal Clum-octcristics of the Old. 63

wild schemes for vengeance—burn the temple (974), kill Xu- thus (976), kill Ion (978), etc. In the Hippolytus the ability of the nurse to scheme and plan is nothing short of marvelous. Her persistency too is noteworthy. The almost exhausted with her forn‘ler etl’orts to find out Phtedra’s secret and the apparently ready to give up discouraged (284), yet she shows the inexhaustible fertility of her time of life (and sex) in devising ways and means for accom- plishing her purpose. She returns to the attack undaunted (285). And when at last she does discover her mistress” secret, the at first aghast at the disclosure of Phaedra’s incestuous passion (13ft- ; cf. also 353 111). she soon recovers her poise and cle'erly evolves a sophisti‘ argument justifying Plnedra’s yielding to her love. (Of. the whole fifims from 4:39 on.) This plan tailing (503) , she is ready with another plan (510 it.) ; and even after this too has disnn'llly failed, so that the nurse herself acknowledges that it has tailed (698-9), she will not give up, but wants to propose another scheme (705). She is prevented .l"roni doing so only be ‘ause I’luedra herself tersely dis- misses her with the injunction to attend to her own business (708-9). [n the Bacclne the shrewdness ot‘ the old in suggesting schemes is well shown. it was at Cadnlus’ instigation, so his daughter said, that Semele had referred her son‘s parentage t0 Zeus so as to escape the shame of harlotry (23-30). This was probably true, for Cadmus‘ religious fervor toward Dio- nysus is not, we suspect, wholly disinterested. There seems to be a cunning purpose back of it (181-3). We catch a further glimpse of this purpose in his exhortatitm to Pentheus t.o_honor Dionysus even it he be not a god, so that their 'ace may have the glory of seeming to have begotten a god (11213-6). On the other hand this suggestion of Cadmus’ does not indicate (even the he is not wholly disinterested in his service) in Cadmus himself any lack of faith. In fact, he exhibits as an old man the usual strong traces of religious piety and reverence. (See Religious Trait, pp. 2-4.) Hecuba in the Hecuba also displays in a marked degree this trait of the old to devise ways and means to meet an emergency. Even in her distress in the impending loss of her daughter she 64 The Dramas of Euripides.

is able to suggest an admirable plan for saving Polyxena (287 iii). Also for the hesitating and weak Agamemnon she has a plan of action ready which meets well the conditions (869 it). A somewhat amusing illustration of this trait occurs in 970-, 974-5, where Hecuba attributes her inability or unwillingness to meet Polymnestor’s gaze, to shame at her present distressing lot and to her strict observance of the laws of modesty. This is really too much after the bold and immodest conversation which she has just had with Agamemnon (825 it.) in which, with great laxity of speech, she refers to Cypris and her pleasures. In fact, Hecuba’s ettrontery on this occasion suggests to us Admetus’ exclamation:

\ ~ 2 ’ I / 1 7’0 YUPUS (1)9 (Ll/(Mafia? TAEUJV. Old Iolaus in the I-Ieraclidae is also filled with schemes and plans (see Admonitory Trait, p. 4:7). The these schemes do not always fit, as is also the ease with the old man in the Electra (p. 62), yet the old man is seldom without some plan which (he thinks) suits the occasion. In the Cyclops Euripides uses this trait of the old—fertility in devising plans to extricate themselves from embarrassment—— as we have seen he used the other traits of the old, to produce a ludicrous etl’ect. Old Silenus no sooner finds himself face to face with the Cyclops than all his boldness vanishes, and he shows that he is a past master in the art of devising ways and means to meet an emergency by-the enormous lies he tells in quick succession (228-40). According to Silenus, Odysseus and his followers had beaten him (228), stolen the goods, and then boasted that they would “do a plenty” to Cyclops himself it he should come back before they got away (232-40). Lines 540-89 give a scene where quick-wittedness and great fertility in eoncocting schemes bring out in ludicrous fashion the weakness of both Cyclops and Silenus—Silenus indulging in liberal potations, finding excuse atter excuse (554, 557-8) for not giving the cup to howling Cyclops, and finally gulping down the entire cup himself (564)—all making up a scene which for comic etlfect would be hard to excel. In the Antiope it is the old pedagogue who steps into the

1Alces. 727. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 65 breach and with a quick wit and facility in devising schemes matures a plan which saves Antiope and restores her as mother to her sons. More remarkable even than this and showing even better the fertility of the old in reasons and excuses is the reason he alters the boys for his previous silence about the identity of their mother. (Frag. Antiope 218. See also I-Iar- tung, Vol. .11., p. 4526.) Again, is it this old pedagogue who concocts the scheme for the punishment of Lycus. The old man plans, the boys execute. (Hartung, Vol. IL, p. 428.) In the Dictys the old man thinks he is able by planning and contriving to thwart the wicked purpose of Polydectes.1 OLD AGE CONSERVATIVE: YOUTH BOLD AND VEN- TURESOME. The next trait of the old which we may observe in the dramas of Euripides is their conser’atism. The old are careful and discreet; observant of custom and established usage to which they cling with a tenacity which is sometimes pathetic. Old age is the time of fixed manners and modes of life. Youth is the time for learning. The nature of the old is incapable of being molded by outside influence; that of youth is plastic and pliable. In this connection compare Snpplices (916-17) : a? 3’ «iv pdfiy n9 (véos) rafira mééecrgar. c/JLAEE apes yfipas. This conservatism of the old is very frequently brought into strong contrast with the opposite traits, boldness and venturesomeness, which the young display. Orcstes in the Iph. Tau., in response to I’ylades’ suggestion that they venture a bold attack upon the temple during the night, responds, 615 yap eivras poxflos 'yt‘zp odSeis 'roZe ve'OLs mow“! gbe'per,” implying thereby that while youth is venturesome, age is careful and prudent. Cf. here Alces. 1053. With this cf. also Hip. 967-9. In the Supplices this contrast between the conservatism of

lInc. Frag. 910. Assigned to Dictys by Hartung, Vol. I., p. 369. 2Iph. Tau. 119-22. 5 66 The Dramas of Euripides.

old age and the impetuosity of youth is well developed. Adras- tus, bewailing the misfortune which he has brought upon himself, attributes it to the fact that he had yielded to the clamor ot' the young men for war against the counsels of the wise Amphiaraus (160). Note also lines 232-7. Here the implied contrast between impulsive youth and the conservatism ot’ riper years is well marked. The high and venturesome spirit of youth is again well brought out by Theseus (444-6). “In a monarchyfl he says, “the young men are killed for fear they will not endure tyran- ny.” 2Ethra’s words (312-13) show well the respect of the old for law and custom. Cf. also in this connection Creon’s response to Eteocles (in the I’hoenissae), who, when he hears that the Argive host is advancing to battle, wants to lead his army out at once. To this Creon says (713') : "Art so young as not to see what thou ought’st to see ‘3”—that is, “Your youth makes you too venturesome.” He adds very significantly: contact, (735). An excellent example of the conservatism of the old and their reverence for established customs which they cling to with a tenacity bordering sometimes on the pathetic occurs in the Orestes. Taking as his text, so to speak, these words, Kahtfis gas/10 mil-re. (ro'aovs) 7ra-re'pes oi rather} old Tyndareus does not permit himself to condone in the least the crimes of his daughter, Olytemnestra. He hates her for violating the laws and customs of Greece (518-19), and he thinks she has done well in dying for her sins (538). He steels his heart against his grandson, Orestes, and is determined to support the law, so far as in him lies, against all forms of illegality, that “bestial and polluting thing which destroys states and nations” (523-5). This conservatism, this attachment to custom, is well seen also in the Bacchze. It is the “traditions of his fathers"

1Orestes 512. Even before this, this trait of old Tyndareus‘ character had been brought out in his reply to Menelaus. Menelaus says: 'ElZfivmév 70L rev 6,116051: rzpév fiat (486). To this Tyndareus responds: Kai niw 116/101: ya la!) apérepov staL 09.6111 (487.) Personal Characteristics of the Old. 67 and their customs “coeval with time” that he had inherited to which Tiresias clings so tenaciously.1 And it is to the “custom current among men” of honoring all the gods to which the depdmov first appeals in his effort to change Hippo- lytus’ attitude toward Aphrodite (Hip. 90 iii). In fact, this conservatism of the old, this hesitation to coun- tenance innovations of any kind, is one of the causes why the old are on the side of the established religious order (pp. 1-15) . They disliked innovations .in all the relations of life. In the Alccstis the chorus of old men is anxious to know whether the castmuary arrangements have been made (148). They are also anxious to perform the customary funeral rites, the putting on of mourning as soon as it is ascertained that Al- cestis must die (215-16). And Pheres, when censured by Ad- metus because he, an old man, is not willing to die for him, says that there is no law or custom requiring it.2 In the Ion (808-220) the old man gets excited and indignant as he thinks (when he hears of Ions supposed identity) of the “outraged law of the city and conjugal troth so rudely vio- lated.” (Lallier, De la Condition (10 la Femme, p. 201.) pi "‘i MILDER TRAITS. ' ..1 The characteristics of the old which we have discussed up to this time have, more or less, had reference to stern, unlovable, uncompromising phases of their character. Their garrulity, their excitability, their dissatisfaction with their present de- spised lot and their yearning to renew the days of their youth, their conservatism which had a tendency to oppose progress—- all these were traits which exercise a repellent rather than an attractive influence upon us as we study the delineation of senile character by our poet. There is, however, another phase of the character of the old, a kindlier, friendlier phase, which Euripides had caught and which he delights in depicting. This kindlier, milder phase of character manifests itself in several ways: (a) In love for children; (7)) In kindly sympathy for the afflicted and distressed;

lBacchae 201-3. With this of. the who in Hec. 800 and see p. 2, note 5. 2Alc. 683. 68 The Dramas of Euripides.

(o) In love of peace; ((1) In attachment to friends; (a) In a keen sense of justice; (f) In a gem-natured, paternal coudescension to younger people. It we take up these in order, we shall see that these traits of character are much in evidence in the old of Euripides. (a) Love for Children.1 This is eSpecially frequent in the Pluenissal. Old Creon is indignant when Tiresias even suggests that he give his son as a vicarious offering for the state. He is willing to die himself (968-9), but he ‘annot and will not give 11p his son.2 And his distress as he comes in with the mangled body of Menoeceus, seeking Jocasta, who is to wash and lay out the body, is very touching (1310-19). Quite in keeping with this attitude of (treon's is the anxiety which Jocasta shows for her two sons, her eagerness for news from them (1076, 1683-4, 1207-8). So intense is her affection that she resolves not to survive them (1280-2), and actually does kill herself when she finds that: they are dead (1348). Also at the end of the play, when old (Edipus is introduced he shows this same thotful and considerate love for his child Antigone. Tho he feels bitterly solitary exile (1616-29), yet as soon as Antigone announces her intention to share, that, exile (1679) he rejects, be 'ause of his love for her, her oll’er (1683), and adds: “Do you but stay here and be happy, and I shall verily love my ills” (1685). And the play closes with his making a ﬁnal effort to have her give up her project of sharing his exile with him (17:47 11”.). In the Medea a very touching scene is described by the messenger-. Old Creon, when he comes in and sees his daughter dying, is so overcome by his fatherly affection that he throws himself upon her, tries to tear the magic garment from her body, and, failing in the attempt, cries out piteously:

1The love of children is not exclusively an old trait. The young display it, but the old show it in an especially marked manner. 2Phcen. 963-4. Personal Clwractcristics of the Old. 69

us I my \ yepovm I nipflov I optima/av 3 \ 06051! I 71.67)va I ,. 0mm, u avrfiavot/u I l 00L, TEKVOV. I 1 In the Hecuba we find this trait of the old, love of‘ children, very extensively and effectively used by the poet. Old Hecuba, when she finds that: Odysseus is inexorable, otl'ers herself as an ott’ering to Achilles, hoping thus to save her daughter (385- 7.) And when she finds that her death cannot satisfy Achil- les (389-90) she wants to die with her daughter (:’91), and she becomes so insistent in her demands to die with Polyxena that she forgets herself? and declares that Odysseus “must” (806) yield to her demands—a word wholly out of place in a slave‘s nioutth,'as Odysseus curtly informs her (397). It is very touching to see the excitement, of' old Amphitryon in the H. F. when he thinks his son. Hercules, is going to kill him—an excitement due not to his fear2 of death, but to his anxiety lest his son by killing him incur the guilt: of" patricide and thus increase his sorrow (1072-6). This tender solicitude of old Amphil‘ryon for Hercules is further brought out in the touching scene (1111-45) where he parries Hercules’ questions and does not want to tell him the whole truth, in order to spare him as much as possible. ' With this cf. the scene of (,‘admus in the .lilacchae (1287-8) where he hesitates to tell Agave the truth, lest the shock might "retard her recovery from madness.” in the 'l‘roades a mother‘s pride sees the cause of Helen’s choice of‘ Paris’ beauty." Orcstes tells us that old Tyndareus and Leda carried him when a child around, taking as much pride in him as in their own children (Orcstes 462-0). -

1Med. 1209-10. Mader, in his work entitled, Ueber die Hauptsaech- lichsten Mittel, mit. denen Euripides than; zu erregen sucht, p. 37, well points out that from the ﬁrst Creon displays as one of his more characteristic traits Liebe zu seiner Tochter, and calls attention to lines 282 it, 328-9 as cases in point. Mader does not, however, seem to see that this “Liebe zu seiner Tochter” is a trait of old age in general, and not anything particularly noteworthy with respect to Creon alone. L'Decharme thinks this scene amusing (p. 254).

:ITro. 987-8.

_~_.a..m»._...... _ runaway-11‘3““: ...._...... t.——_~......

70 The Dramas of Euripides.

In the Andromache note Peleus’ affection for his grandson, Molossus. Cf. lines 722-4 especially.‘ In the Supplices it is touching to see Iphis’ devotion to his children. He feels he cannot live when Evadne dies (1073‘). In the Heraclidae the love of her grandchildren has led Alc- mene to endure great hardship in flight and exile for their sake (4.1-3). In the I’olyidus, Mines is so infatuated with his son, Glau- cns, that he desires to renew his youth. so that he may the longer love him (Hartung, Eurip. Resin, Vol. ’Il.,_ p. 214-). (b) [Ci/Idly Sympathy for :tﬂlictcd and Distressed. This is one of the most: touching traits of the old. They are very sympathetic. Even the bare thot of sorrow often moves them to tears. Tyndareus in the Orcstes declares that, tho he did not see the awful sight of Clytemnestra’s murder, yet the mere thot of it: melts his old eyes to tears (528-9). In the H. F. the old men of the chorus are moved} to bitter tears when they see Megara, her children. and the old man, 'Amphitryon. coming forth dressed for death (LIT-50). In the Snpplices, Adrastns shows a line sense of feeling for the distressed Supplices. His heart. bleeds for the poor mothers denied. with more or less insolence (942), a last look at their dear sons, and he turns to them with the consoling words: “Never mind. You must: endure this (new grief) pa- tiently. It is prolniibly better so. Nevertheless you shall have the ashes of your dear ones to carry as a solace with you to your homes" (HIT-El ). I11 the beginning of the play, too, this sympathetic trait: of the old is well brought out by contrast. SEt'ln-z, the old mother, is easily and at first sight moved to pity for the distressed state of the Surmliants. while Theseus, the bump- tious youth, has to be (werpersuaded by his mother before he will adopt a friendly and sympathetic attitude toward them (301 iii). Cf. here Creon in the Medea. Tho he feared Medea (282 ff.)

lPatin calls attention to this affection of Peleus for Molossus, Vol. III., p. 75, and adds: “En qui (Molossus) 1e vieillard, malgré l'lllégttt~ mlté de sa naissance chérit nn rejeton de sa race." Personal Characteristics of the Old. 71

and thot it best to exile her immediately from the land, yet he is so moved by the sight of her distress that he pities her and permits her to remain. Note his words as he yields (348-!)). In the Hippolytus the animating impulse of the nurse’s activity in I’hzcd ‘a’s behalf is her excessive sympathy for her mistress in her great distress. The nurse herself says (25!). 60) : “I grieve excessively for her.” In the Andromache old Peleus is moved to tears as he un- binds Andromache’s hands and sees the bruises the thongs had made (719). See page ‘39. It is this feeling of sympathy for the sorrows of others which is in part the cause of Iolaus and Alcmene in their advanced old age undergoing so much distress and hardship for the He 'aclida‘. For other causes which impelled them to the sacrifice. see page 70, etc. , An excellent case of this sympathy for the distressed which the old feel occurs in the Antiope. Antiope, beloved by Zeus, imprisoned by Lycus her uncle, cruelly insulted by Dirce her aunt, then a fugitive on Citlneron, starving. tired, in mortal terror lest: she should be apprehended and returned to her cruel aunt: and uncle. scorned as a 1r6p1’7] by her as yet unknown son from whom she asks protection and help, presents a sorrowful and pitiable spectacle. It is at this juncture that an old man—he who had found her exposed sons some years before and had reared thein—mipears upon the stage. He is instantly touched by Antiope’s wretched plight; and her whom the youth. Zethus, had spurned and upon whom her wretched condition made no impression, the old man no sooner sees than he pities and plans to help.1 His pity for her leads him into a violent quarrel with the queen and later into the breaking of a ﬁrm resolution2 which he had formerly made. Another excellent illust-ation of this t'ait of the old is seen in the (Eneus. Old (Eneus had been wretchedly treated by Agrius—had been deprived of his kingdom, forced into

1Hartung, Eurip. Rest, Vol. [I., p. 425, says: “Senex. eui salus miserae cordi erat.” 2He had resolved not to tell the boys the woman was their mother. He breaks this in his zeal to rescue Antiope. 72 The Dramas 0f Euripides.

wretched servitude, and made to suffer innmne 'able distresses. Yet in spite of this, when restored to his kingdom by his grandson, and when Agrius is completely in the latter’s power, such is the kindly sympathy which the old felt for sorrow and distress that Qﬁneus, much to 'Diomedes’ chagrin, forces the latter to be mild in his treatment of his prisoner and to content himself with the punishment of exile. Likewise in the Dictys it is old Dictys who, touched by the suffering of Danae,1 stands forth thruout the drama as her companion and defender. (e) Love of Peace. The old in Euripides are the peace-lovers, the advocates of arbitration, not of war. Other characters2 occasionally talk of the advantages of peace. but their words lack the depth of feeling and conviction which the words of the old evince. An excellent illustration of this 1' mt ot' the old is found in Erectheus, Frag. 370. Here the chorus of old men having just witnessed the dire sacrifices which war exacts (a royal daughter slain) breaks out in a touching ode to peace. Kresphontes, Frag. tee, is another excellent case in point. Note the depth of pathos in this prayer of an old chorus to loitering peace. Note also the earnest: feeling in Adrastus’ words (Sup. 744- 9). This advo(':acy of peace is with him no mere [mssiiig fancy, but is his principle of life. As the corpses of the dead heroes are about to be carried to the pyre, Adrastus, feeling that a sight of the bodies of their sons, even tho the; are but lifeless. bodies, would be some balm to the aching hearts of the wretched mothers, says to them (Sup. 941): “Approach, ye sorrowing mothers, and take a last fond look.” As these grief-stricken matrons, bowed down by their grief and length of years, are about to approach the bier, Theseus restrains them. curtly

‘Hartung, Vol. I., p. 539, commenting upon the protection which Licymnius gave to Alcrnene in the play by that name, says he did it quamvis scncm. Had he said, cum senea; cssct, his expression would have been more exact. 2The talkative herald in the Supplices remarks on the advantages of peace (486-493), but this is more in the nature of an academic discussion than an expression of deep conviction. Personal Olmi-actcristics of the Old. 73

chiding (note the presumption) gray-headed Adrastus (Sup. 942). Adrastns, seeing the haughty demeanor and excited mien of Theseus, and indulging his natural peace—loving nature, yields to Theseus with the courteous remarr: “You are doubtless right (mxd‘s‘).” He thus, by means of excellent judgment and self-possession which a young man would hardly ever have shown (in Euripides), prevents what could easily have developed into a disgraceful quarrel in the presence of the dead. And a little later on he breaks out into a pathetic apostrophe t0 wretched men to cease from war (Sup. 949-52) . Also in lines 232-7 of this play the pacific nature of the old, its thotlt'ul care of others, etc., is brought out by sharp contrast with the opposite t hits of the youlw. it is_ be ‘ause the old are peace-hwing that we find them the peacemakers in quarrels and disputes. In the Iph. Aul. Cly- temnestra tells us that it was her old father who interposed in the feud between her and her brothers on the one side and Agamemnon on the other to allay the strife and to bring about a reconciliation (l. A. 1155). It was the same old man who, we find, by prudent forethot sought to keep everything peace- ful and harmonious among the suitors (I. A. 55-09). hi this connection cf. Jocasta. in the l’hocn., who is the go- between in the pacific overtures between the brothers (435 iii). In the Alcmene it is the aged Alcmene who seeks to allay the discord between Tlepolemus and l'ricymnius. And it is Licymnius who, the roundly berated by Tlepolemus for his lack of spirit, prefers to endure his present unfortunate condition rather than to seek redress by arms (Hartung, Vol. I., pp. 538-9). Cf. in this connection the chorus of old men in the Heraclidae how peace-loving they are. (See p. 33.) ((1) Attachment to Friends. The old display in marked degree this lovable trait. The old servant in the Electra, as he comes toiling up the steep bank (489-90) bringing supplies to Electra, in response to her summons (401)) says: “For one’s friends one must endure a bent back and tottering knee.” (Elec. 491-22.) In the H. F. the chorus of old men pride themselves on their fidelity to their friends. They tell Lycus not to call them busy-

74 The Dramas of Euripides.

bodies because they take the part of their friends (2667). Cf. here the words of the old man in the Ion (935) : dis a‘ua'rewiéew y‘oiSa yam/aft»; ¢[4\OL9. Note also lines 850-3, where he expresses his willingness to die if only he can avenge the wrong Creusa has suffered. In the P110311. the old pedagogue shows great solicitude for the fair name of Antigone. He wants her to tarry before going out upon the walls long enough for him to assure himself that there is no one to see them (92-95). And again when he sees the chorus of women coming up to the house, he urges her to go in lest they talk of her.1 With this cf. the words of the nurse in the Hippolytus (212 til). In the Helen (726 iii), Medea (54), l'. A. (304 it), old servants descant upon their fidelity and attachment to their masters, while in the latter, as Nestle says,2 “rechnet sich der alte Haussklave den Vorwurt’ ‘allzugrosser Treue,’ den ilnn Mene- laus macht, zur Ehre an, und der Klytacmnestra gegenueber bezciehuet er sich als ‘ihr and ihren Kindern wohlgesinnt’ (867). Die l_)rohnung (les Menelaus beantwortet er mit der Versicherung. dass es J'ucr einen Sklaven Nichts Ruhmvolleres gcbe, als t'uer seinen Herrn zu sterben” (312'). Iolaus in the I-Ieraclidae is an excellent example of the warm’ attachment which the old show their friends. He tells us himself that he (:(Hlld have been living quietly and safer at home, but he chose to share all the atiliction of the Heraclids because of his former attachment to their father” (ti-11). And the old fellow stops at nothing to help his friends, even offering himself as a vicarious sacriﬁce for the Heraclidie and Athens."

Ithn. 193-201. This love and solicitude here and elsewhere shown by old slaves and servants for their masters is separate and distinct from the enforced obedience of slaves to their masters, which is everywhere in evidence and which was the lot of a slave. It is this enforced obedience of slaves to their masters (not the attachments they show to friends) of which Nestle is speaking when he says (9. 352, Euripides der Ditcher der Griechischen Aufklaerung): “Der Sklave hat nichts zu than, als den Willen seines Herrn zu erfuellen: seine einzige Tugend ist der Gehorsam." 2Page 357, Euripides der Dichter der Griechischen Aut’klaerung. 30f. with this the sorrows which Licymnius and Alcmene endure in the Alcmene for the sake of the Heraclidae. (Hartung. Vol. I., p. 537.) 4Heracl. 453-5. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 75

Note also his words when he annmmces his purpose to go and join the army himself.1 Note also Tyndareus’ eagerness to see Menelaus (Ores. 474 til).

(6) A Keen. Sense of Justice. The old have a keen sense of justice and 0f the ﬁtness of things. Old Amphitryon in the Her. Fun, remembering Hier- acles’ benefactions to Greece, thinks it: unjust that Greece in turn does not defend his children, the He 'aclidze‘i (217-26). In the Cyclops old Silenus in the prologue feels that his former services to Bacchus ought, to gain for him a requital far dill’erent from his present degrading and distressing service to the man-killing Cyclops. Of. the whole prologue in which he “querulously describes the troubles which he has had to endure from his early youth until now in the service of Bacchus,”3 with the words of the chorus (76-81) ,' which we may properly take as representing Silenus’ thots. This trait: of the old is forcibly brought out in the .Eolus. In that play Macareus becomes enamoured of and then de- bauches his sister, (.‘anaee; no sooner does the old father, EEolus, find this out than, with a, keen sense of the right. and fitness of things. he sends her a naked sword. Canace acts upon the hint and commits suicide. Cf. also Alcmene in the Heraclidze when Eurystheus comes under her power. The eternal fitness of things makes this just and proper, (5 Z517, xpdmp [LEV Tilt/J." e'n'etmétbw mKoi." Of. also [’olymnestor before Hecuba in the latter part, of the Hecuba. (3f. ’l‘yndareus‘ attitude in the Orcstes. His keen sense of justice causes him to see that tho (,tlytemnestra is his own daughter, yet she met a just: fate in dying (Ores. 538).

1Heracl. 680-1, 2Other characters express sometimes the same thot—e. 9., Mousa in the Rhesus. She thinks that in return for all the honors she and her sisters had heaped upon Athens she should have got better treatment from Athene than the death of her son. (Rhe. 938-48.) Cf. also Ion. (364 ft; 439-443; 449-451; 906). “Paley, note to line 1.

4Heracl. 869.

.7,. 4:

-7v WFJTT- “Q C: The Dramas of Euripides.

(f) A Good-Natural, Paternal Condeseension to Younger People. The old were inclined to look upon younger people, no matter how old these may themselves be, with a go(,)(l-natured, patronizing, and paternal coudescension. They seemed to think of younger people as still children. so that when they addressed younger people they seldom1 ,-allcd them by their name, but instead they used the terms “son” (ml, re’xvov) and “daughter” (ddywrcp). In the Helen no sooner does the messenger ﬁnd out that he is talking to the true I-lelen than he breaks out, into a long speech, the first Word of which is doyarep (711). In the Troadcs Hecuba addresses the chorus re'Kvov (160, et (11.). She uses TéKror and wt: to Andrormtche (6'28. 632, et (11.). In the Supplices the chorus calls Theseus 'réKvor (282, et (11.). In the Ion the old man addresses Creusa with diiyarep (735, 763, 925, 942, Slit), 008), with re’mlov (765), with mi (1018, ct ((1.). In the Hip. the nurse addresses l‘hzcdra with mi, (212, 238, 288, 316, 3; 8, 473, 521), with rc’xvov (223, 2297, 338, 340, 350, 353, 517, ct (1].). She addresses Hippolytus with ml ((503, (313), with re’xvov ((511). And so on thruout the other works. This habit which the old had of looking upon younger people as still children, no matter how old the younger person may himself happen to he, explains a passage in the Suppliccs which has given much trouble.” Adrastus calls himself in line 166 7ro,\Los «trim. In 250, however, the chorus speak of him as : véos. The chorus, being composed of the mothers of Adrastus’ companions, and being therefore much older than Adrastus (tho he is old enough to have a gray heard).“ characteristically speak of him as a re’oq, and say with goml-natured indulgence: “Youth, is full of error; therefore pity him” (Sup. 250-1).

IIn the Alcestis, however, the chorus of old men always address Admetus by his name, except in line 674. But see p. 77 ff. 2Dindort‘ gets around the trouble by omitting the former verse (166). Paley endorses this in his note to line 250. Murray, however, in the Oxford text, gives both lines. Bit must be remembered the that Adrastus was not very aged, for he speaks of himself in line 738 as still among the rim ﬁ/Jaxioan'. Personal Characteristics of the Old. 77

Line 674 of the Alcestis, which has also given much trouble to commentators, becomes natural and regular when we remem- her that the old address younger people with a good-natured, condescending mtl. It is objected1 that the word 7raZ is “unsuitable in the mouth of eourtiers addressing their king.” These old fellows, however, simply yield in this instance to their natural bent and quite instinctively use the word ml, even tho they are speaking to “their king.” And this view proved the more likely inasmuch as in the Heraclida‘: Iolaus, a refugee seeking asylum at a foreign court, addresses King Demophron with this very term 7rd? (381:). If there were anything “unnatural” in such a use of the word, the unnaturalness would be here rather than in the Alcestis. In both cases, however. the old fellows are merely yielding to that natu a] tendency which the old everywhere show in Eurip- ides ot' looking with more or less patronizing coudescension upon all younger people, no matter what their age or rank, as still youths. Result of These Milder Traits. These milder traits of» character which we have just discussed—love for children, kindly sympathy for the afﬂicted, love of peace, attachment: to friends, a keen sense of justice, :1 good- natured coudescension to younger people—made them beloved in spite of the harsher side of their natures. Those around them saw these nobler attributes of the old; and forgetting or overlooking in great measures their irritating peculiarities, looked upon the old in many cases with a reverent,“ if not with an affectionate, feeling.

IJerram: Alcestes, Intro., 1). xxvi. 2Paley's comment on this line is: “The age of Iolaus entitles him thus familiarly to address the young king.” 3In the Eurystheus, Frag. 364, line 21, a youth is advised to shun evil and to cherish intercourse with the old: «hazing- 65 rd; yspatrépag ether. Lallier (De la Condition de la Femme, p. 210) cites, when speaking of les parents du mari, Plato’s Laws, XL, 1). 931, and says of the passage: “Platon nous présente 1a vieillesse sous l’aspect le plus véu- érable. Un pére, un ai'eul, charges d’années ne doivent pas nous etre moins saerés que les statutes (les dieux. Ces ai'eux, que nous avons dans netre maison . . . sont les images vivantes des dieux." 78 The Dramas of Euripides.

In the Hippolytus, Theseus, when he thinks that the wailing in the palace is for Pittheus, says (Hip. 794-6) : “Tho he is very old, yet I should grieve much if he is dead.” In the Orestes the sight of old Tyndareus arouses even in the heart of the crazy murderer, Orcstes, a recollection of the- kindness Tyndareus had shown him when a, boy and the especial reverence for the old man he had felt and still feels because of this kindness (Ores. 459-61). Again, in lines 548-50, he refers to this reverence and awe which he feels for Tyndareus. In fact, Orestes’ whole attitude at first is one of affection and reverence. Compare here the alfection which we are told Pentheus showed to old Cadmus; how he protected him, taking upon himself and avenging the insults offered to Cadmus (Bac. 1311- 13, 1319-24). He is even restrained from proceeding to violence toward Cadmus because of the reverence which he feels for his old age (Bac. 258-60). Such devotion and care must ﬁnd its fullest explanation“ in something more than mere custom2 or pity felt for the danger to which the old were always liable of being abused and maltreated. (See p. 31 b ; also pp. 35-36.) Note also the tender care which Theseus (tho somewhat oliiciously and vauntingly) shows to old .E'thra in the Sup- plices (359-62). An excellent illustration of the reverence which the old in- spired and the consideration with which they were often treated occurs in the H. F. Hercules asks of his father (533) : ri 45379; rlv’ 6’s repay/L511 ﬁKoper, mirep. Megara, however, in the ex- citementof the moment, answers the question herself. The next. moment, however, seeing the discourtesy she has shown to old Amphitryon, she begs his pardon (534), m‘: 8%, ye’pov, miyyvodé

1Fustel de Coulanges, in La Cité Antique, pp. 108-9, says: “Et voyez quel lieu puissant la religion établit entre le pere et le ﬁls! Les anciens donnaient aux vertus domestiques le nom de piété: l'obéissance du ﬁls envers 1e pere, l’amour qu’il portait a sa mére, c’était de la piété . . .; l’attachement du pere pour son enfant, la tendresse de la mere, c’était encore de la piété . . . Tout était dlvln dans la famine.” 2 “The, law yostg much was one of three especially held in honor by the Greeks. See Frag. Antiope 221.” (Paley, note to line 362 of Suppllces.) Personal- Charucteristirs of the Old. 79

not, attributing her discourtcsy to the f 'ailtics of her sex (535- 6.) A little later on Hercules is amazed to ﬁnd that Lycus had so far forgot himself as not to have any scruples against dishonoring the old man, Amphitryon.1 It is interesting to note in conclusion that this love and affection which the old were often the recipient of was especially pleasing to them. Consequently Euripides has them show that they liked to be loved and caressed." Note the pa thetic words of old Iphis in the Supplices (1101-3): “An old man loves a daughter rather than a son, for a daughter fondles him the more.”

1H. F. 556. BLallier (De la Condition de la Femme, p. 212) says: “La vieillesse, comme 1’enfance, a besoin d’étre choyée et caressée; il ne lui sutﬁt pas de se savior aimée, il faut que cette affection qu‘on lui porte se produise en vives demonstrations, qu’elle se prodigue en tendres paroles et en prévenances délicates.”

PA RT TWO. DRAMATIC CHAI‘ACTERISTICS OF THE OLD IN EU HPIIHCS. 703v 'ye M71! oZKTpoyoaw €7ri yfipas . . . é/\Ko,u€ranl Ao’ywv KexpamKéraL Te’xry ,uOL (bait/67m. (Plato, Phwdrus, :3 '7 C.) Tafira. €8L’3a‘fier 059 365 . . . émomio’dac é’Aeor yfipas. {H'cI'IIIit/s, 22.28: .18.)

DRAMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OLD IN EURIPIDES. HAVING now analyzed the personal characteristics of the old in the d 'amas of' Euripides, we come to the second division of our subject, as stated on page xiv: A deduction therefrom (i. e., from the personal traits) as to their dramatic characteristics—1'. e., the function they discharge in the movement; of the dream. It was said on page xiii that the old had marked dramatic cha 'acteristics—that is, whenever 1*]11ri1‘ﬁdes wants to produce certain effects he uses old people, and the more desirous he is to produce these effects the more certain he is to give old men and women important miles in the play. What then are these effects which Euripides produces by his use of' old characters‘.’ ’afhos, deep and profound; sorrow, heart-breaking and crushing; pity, compassion, sympathy.1 Our poet uses the old in his most tragic parts to intensify the tragedy and to increase the pathos of those parts. This effect the personal traits of the old, their excitability, their garrulity, and repetition," the danger of suffering abuse to which they were exposed, etc., combined with their milder phases of character, their love of children, their love of peace, etc., were especially calculated to produce. Euripides perceived” this and made use of the old with their stern and unbending traits, together with their milder and

1“A striking characteristic of Euripides‘ plays is the appeal they make to human pity,” says W. H. S. Jones in The Moral Standpoint of Euripides, p. 18. 2Ludovicus a Sybel, in De repetitionibus verhorum in fabulis Eurip- ideis, p. 11, says: “Earundem vero vocum pathetica quaedam assiduitas cantica decet imprimis timentium, lugentium, magna laetitia ex- sultantium.” “Ludwig Mader, on the other hand, in his inaugural dissertation (1907) entitled, Ueber die Hauptsaechtlichsten Mittel, mit denen Euripides Elsa; zu erregen sucht, p. 58. thinks that Euripides was in- tellectually dependent, or, in the exact words of Mader, that he had a “geistige Beruehrung,” for much of his power in depicting pathos upon the “models of sympathy—“Schlabonen des Mitleids”—which the Rhet- or, Thrasymaehus of Chaledon, was turning out about this time. (83) 84 The Dramas of Euripides.

gentler characteristics, to work upon the sympathy ot‘ the audience and to excite and to maintain the feeling of" pity and tear,1 which Aristotle says2 is the sum of tragic composition. The greater the number of the old in any play and the more prominent these old characters are. the deeper the sorrow, the more intense the pathos of the. play. and the greater the

1Conradus Haym, in his paper, De puerorum in re scaenica Graeco- rum partibus (Dissertationes Philologicae Halenses, Vol. XIII., pars 4), says on page 293: “Sed addendum est alterum artis Euripideae pro- prium atque ipsum quoque ab Aristophane saepissime castigatum" (Ach. 413; Pac. 146 it; Ran. 1063 it). “Illud dico quod in excitanda spectantium misericordla summum posuit studium; inde pannosae illae, mendicae, claudae personae, quas acerbissimo risu comicus exagitat." To the pannosae illae, mendicae, etc., Haym could have added with great propriety and truth, maximi natu. In fact, Haym seems to have partially observed that Euripides used the old to arouse the emotions of his audience, for he says, pp. 289, 290, of the paper above referred to: “Non sine ratione quidam (pueri) mihi conieeisse videntur . ut spectantium voluptati inservirent. . . . Negari nequit, ad mise- ricordiam movendam onmes t'ere tragicos pueros . . . esse aptos. Qua cum arte aliud arrtifieium. promime cohaoret: hoc dieo, Euripidem mihimos hath com iiiarimis, i. e., senibns aetatc lam decrepita, saepe Gallium-ism: eaqae imagine. and vitae lumianae fines artificiose con- sociatos ostenderet. collide stmlnisse spectantium senses movere atque. sibi coaciliare. Decharme in his strong chapter on “Pity" (p. 190 it.) barely misses this function of the old which we are discussing. He says: “The pity which . . . tragic characters inspire has its source not merely in the situations, . . . but sometimes it results also from their sex and their age." He then enters upon a long and illumi- nating discussion of the function of children in Euripides‘ dramas to arouse a feeling of pity, but he does not say anything about the old. Elsewhere he says (p. 169): “Euripides, even from the beginning of his career," seems “to have treated themes in which tragic terror was carried to the extreme limit.” It is interesting to note that Decharme makes this statement after he has described the Peliades— a drama in which the butchery of an old man is the central theme. 2Poetics XIII., 2, 6. Tragedy “must imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation; . . . and Euripides, faulty as he is in the general management of; his subject, yet is felt to be the most tragic of the poets: " én-euh) 015v (Sci 7271: abufiemv slvai 1'17; KahhiorI/c Toayqtdiag . . . ooflepév Kai éheswdm ill/NITIWV, fol/To ydp [thou r77; roman}; pl/ll;0’6ld§ éari. . , . Kai 6 Eb/iirrfriI/g cl Mai rd villa #7) 2:5 oilcovo/zel dhhd rpa- ylicérarog ya 76»! weir/76w oaivsrai.

Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 85

feeling of pity engendered in the audience. We may state the proposition thus: Wnnxnvnn Eunirinss nssmns TO nxouxnnn A FEELING or pump rrrr 1N ms AUDII-INC-l on To ron'rnxr sonnow PROFOUND AND ovnnwnnmimo ALMOST nnxoxp (run rownn or l-IUMANITY 'ro BEAR, no mamas AN 01.1) reason (on opp rnoan) THE CENTRAL rieunn IN A scan; on rely} The Hecuba and the Troades furnish us with excellent examples of the Use Euripides made of the old in his (1 'amas. In these plays, overwhelming grief, accumulated sorrow, poignant distress are to be depicted, and the leading character in both is the same old woman, Hecuba. So distressing in fact are these plays that the latter has even been criticised as being too tragic and terrible, Schlegel remarks" that “the effort. of the poet is overdone; when all is hopeless gloom and wretchedness, the sentiment of compassion becomes wearied, exhausted, and palled by excess.” in no other play by our poet is there such woe as in these two, and in no other does an Old character play such an important part. We will look at each more closely. in the Hecuba an aged, decrepit ﬁgure, I-lecuba“ herself, is introduced; one time queen, but now, by the vimlictireness of some god, a slave (55-8). So pitiable is this ﬁgure as it hob- bles over the stage, leaning on a crooked stalf ((35.7) and sup— ported by attendant: slaves (62), that the spirit of Polydorus— but lately come from the hiding place of death and the gates of darkness (1), and who we may confidently suppose was

1After 58 pages of “Ways" which Euripides used for arousing sympathy, in which is included everything possible, it would seem, except rb yipag, Mader, p. 59 of his pamphlet above referred to (p. 83, note 3), says: “Auch in den Tragoedien dos Euripides spielen Mpag Kai trauia eine grosse Rolle!” With which statement he is content to leave the matter. 2Quoted by Paley, Vol. I., p. 446. H“Reine tombée dans l’esclavage, mere privée de presque tons ses enfants, I-Iécube ne survit a sa grandeur et a son bonheur que pour voir trainer an sacrifice la fille qui était sa derniere consolation, et pour découvrir la mort (111 plus jeune de ses ills,” is the way Weil (Notice sur la fable et sur la date d’Hécube Sept Trag., p. 204) describes this distressing figure. And Hartung, Eurip. Rest., Vol. I., p. 504, says: “Qua (fabula) Hecuba hand facile ulla magis tragica in- venire potest." 586 The Drmnas of Euripides.

we'll accustomed to and and piteons sights—could not contain itself, but even at the first sight cries out in anguish and deep pity (55). Such being the ell’ect ol.’ the appearance of this aged Hecuba upon a visitor from the other world, we can well believe that no less pity and distress is aroused in the breasts of the audience. And this pity is much increased by the excitement ((51). the tear ((59), the agonizing prayer (79), the impression ol’ impending woe (Sb), and by the rumors which reached her from the Grecian camp (1)-t). All these emotions—excitability, terror, religious fervor (all senile traits. as we have shown)—at1’ect the audience profoundly. It becomes intensely sympathetic toward Hecuba. This sympathy is increased by the long and distressing scenes in the next 100 lines—the chorus in the parodos announcing the newly decreed sorrow (100-51), then Hecuba, again utterly unnerved and helpless, reproaching herselt’ for be age and servitude (1553-72), and calling out her daughter to hear the news (172-7). The audience l'ully agrees with the chorus when it says: “Surely no man is so callous as not to drop a tear for her woes” (296-8). The emotions of the audience are no\' all in play and enlisted on the side of Hecuba, so that in her colloquy with Odysseus and later in her plea betore Agamemnon, first for help and later for judgment against her enemy, Polymnestor, the sympathies ot’ the audience never swerve from the object upon which the poet intended them to be placed. Thrnout the play these sympathies are on Hecuba and her woes. Tal- thybius (4:88), the servant (1358-60), the chorus (689-93, 7 '2 -2), and Agamemnon (1249-8), at (1]., all show that sympathy for Hecuba is sustained thruout. Turn now to the Troades. The leading character of the d ‘ama, Hecuba, describes herself as a 'ypafis‘ (1:10, +190 et (IL), :1 “drone” (192), a “feeble image of the dead” (193), “needing a staff to lean upon” (274). Our attention is first directed to her and her distress in the prologue where Poseidon speaks thus of her: , 7;]l’ Sadhiur H7113. at n; simpdr fiéhet mipeorw, ‘EKdB‘qr Keipei'nr I mike»! ~ rapes I aria/ma Xe’oro'ar 7ro/\,\& Kai wohhdv {imp}

lTro. 36-8. Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 87

This passage isthe index of the play. The wretched old woman, lying before the gates (37) shedding bitter tears, is the central ﬁgure, and draws out our emotions thus early in the play. Her long inonody (98-152) and her dialogue with the chorus (153-96), in which she bewails and amplifies her misfortunes, make us aware of her lamentable condition. We feel ever-increasing pity for the poor wretch who tries to adapt 11er- self to her present state (101-3), but whose exhortation to herself to “sail with the current” (103) only serves to bring before us more vividly the great change which has come upon her. Her place in our feelings is secure. The succeeding portions of the drama only intensify our sorrow and over- whelm us with gloom. I-Ier dread to see her faving daughter who is to be insulted by the Greeks (1603(5), her fear of slavery and her uncertainty with respect to it (190-6), Cassandra’s wretched fate (251), l’olyxena’s death, her own degradation in being allotted as 'aptive to the most inveterate of her foes (278), etc.——all are points elabo 'ating in quick succession Hecuba’s intolerable fate. We ourselves feel her agony as she exclaiins: dpatrae Kpri'ra. KovpL/lor EAK’ (iri'lxemrt Siam/you irapELdV ‘ lui prof [1.0L micaptﬁ Sonic) 76 )te'hoyxu. (bani Sophenew.‘ And her appeal to the chorus (298) could tittingly have been made to us. The effect: upon the audience must have been very great. I-Iers is felt 1‘0 be truly tl Svirnixéo-raros KMjpos‘ (291) . Moreover, thruout (Z‘assand'a’s “wild and frenzied strain”2 (308-40), we think not so much of Cassandra herself as that she is Hecuba’s daughter. It is I-Iecuba’s distress which is intended to be stressed.“ Her grief is overwhelming, and she

JTro. 280-3. ﬂPaley. :Icassandra is introduced by these words: 7rai§ Elm) liarwig (teem deb/)0 Kaoriviipa (ipé/ig) (306-7). They give the turn to the ode, and Cassandra‘s continued appeal to her mother not to weep (403-4, 458), who was all the time weeping bitterly in full sight of the audience, keeps our attention upon Hecuba

as the central ﬁgure. ..

«a...» 4.

A— Ma'mnrm 88 The Dramas of Euripides.

falls to the ground exhausted (462 til). We believe her when she says: #7011403er item wuaxw I re Kat \ 7re7rov0u I KuTl, V wewonac I (41H .- ). The drama is continued along these lines. Hecuba is ever before our minds, even the she is herself not speaking. Her decrepitude, her helplessness, and her senile traits act as foils, so to speak, to bring out. the overwhelming distress which it was the poet‘s purpose to display. Even when Andromache is speaking, we do not forget that she is but the daughter-in-law of Hecuba. Andrtmiache’s sorrows are overslmdowed by the greater stn-rmv of Hecuba—greater be'ause they fall upon a weaker and more enl’cebled head and make, for this reason, a deeper impression upon the audience. Lines 620-1, 791-8 show the overwhelming distress which she felt. The pathos of the play, which has thus been engendered, is kept alive by the same means by which i t was developed. Hec- uba remains the central figure and her woes multiply. Her [517cm- beginning with line 1156 is an interesting study. Note that it is an old woman, the victim of much accumulated distress, who has one blow after another befall her, that the poet uses in this scene whose only purpose is to develop pathos.1 As she stands upon the stage, an old, bent figure, excitedly apostrophizing the shield (119-1), the protector of her son, Hec- tor, on many a field, with the corpse upon it, fondling the dear head (1173-5) and the hands (1178), the month (1180), garrulously quoting the well-remembered prattle of the dead boy (1182), ailing attention to her own defenseless state (1185-6) ——all this makes a scene dillicnlt to be surpassed in pathos, and one especially calculated to move the heart of the audience to pity.” As the play closes with the old woman bedecking with many groans (1218-26) the corpse and shield, with the burning and destruction of Troy before the eyes of her, its former queen

1 Paley says (note to line 1156): "These lines (the whole Men) were evidently penned with an effort after pathos of the highest kind.” 2“Posuit haec Hecubae lamenta Longinns Fragm. VIII. numero eorum quae miserationem movere vehementisslmam valerent," says Hartung, Vol. II., p. 274. Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 89

(1260, 1295, 1325, etc.), with her herself carried off the stage (1320-30) as a slave to Odysseus (12701),1 the pity of it all overwhelms the spectators, and they cry out with Talthybius (1269) : mi 7", (5 yepau‘z, Suarvxwrcirr] 'yzirat. And this excessive pity and compassion which have been felt thruout the play were engendered, sustained, and perfected by the simple expedient of helpless age being made the object of an uninterrupted stream of misfortune. The I’hoenissae is another good example of the principle stated on page 85, that whenever Euripides desired to portray deep sorrow, almost: beyond the power of humanity to hear, he makes use of old people. Jocasta, Tiresias. Creon, and at the last CEdipus himself are old people, and the play which is built up around them is tragic in the extreme.” The cent'al thot. is the doom of old (Edipus (and his descendants) because of his unwitting sin. All the cha'acters suggest this central thot to us by virtue of their relationship or other close connection with the wretched (Edipus; and the continued references, thruout the play, to his woes permit us never to lose sight of the blind and wretched old man inside the palace walls. Jocasta and Creon and Tiresias, therefore, in addition to the deep and profound distress which their own plight reveals to us, intensify the gloom and pathos of the various scenes by these continued references to the un- seen (Edipus. For example, old Jocasta, after referring to her own shorn head and tattered rags of mourning (322-6), describes very lengthily the blindness and grief of (Edipus (327-56). She wants to know moreover the result of the war (1086), in order that she may go within and rejoice the heart of the old man, (Edipus. Thruont the play kindred references are made to him (376-7, 1243, 1331, 1311, at malta alia). The obvious purpose of these repeated references to this wretched old man is:

10f. Tro. 279 ff., etc. 28ic haec tragoedia, in qua satis erat duos mori, duas insuper habet non necessaries mortes (Hermann: Praef. Phoen., pp. xxiii-iv.). mpmaﬁcig dyav ‘l’Ofva'aL 1'1] rpayqudig . . . {madame ’Apgarmprivovg.

90 The Dramas of Euripides.

(a) To intensify the gloom of the tragedy and to make us shudder the more at the fratricidal strife; (b) To prepare the way in this more than tragic tragedy for the ﬁnal scene where Euripides (or the interpolator who is universally acknowledged to have been thoroly Euripidean) exhausts his tragic possibilities by heaping up “pathos upon pathos, and doom upon doom.” Not content with the death of Menoeceus, Eteocles, Poly- neices, and Jocasta—surely enough, and more than enough, to make this a most tragic work—Euripides introduces upon the stage in the ﬁnal scene the old blind (Edipus himself. Noth- ing could be more distressing1 than the sight of the old man, bedridden (153-11), a mere breath (151-1), a corpse from below, an evasive dream (1545) as he calls himself, led by his daughter,” further alllicted and bowed down by the sad tidings which Antigone has to convey (151(5), and, last of all, exiled from his native land (1581)) with no escort: near (as he thinks, 1616) to guide his blind path. Enripides’ purpose in thus bringing CEdipus upon the stage was to intensify the gloom of the play, a thing which the introduction“ of the old always did, in order to close this very tragic play with an episode which should exceed in pathos all the many pathetic scenes that had gone before. Antigone, speaking for Euripides, is at pains to give us the cue. She. says (Iii-10) I {-39 0'6 average) 1'63]! 760mp<67mr wAe’or.‘

1Verra11, Eurip. the Rationalist (p. 244), says: “I take the close of the Phoenissae . . . to be one of the most pathetic passages in the history of literature.” A statement none the less apt for our purpose because made to support an allegorical interpretation of this scene. Muff, Eurip. P110311. Einl. (1). xx.), says: “1111' (Oidipus und Iokasta) Auftreten fuehrt zu den ruehrendsten Szenen . . . dazu gehoeren die Angst der Mutter . . . und . . . ferner das Erscheinen des blinden huelﬂosen Koenigs, seine Wehklage und seine Verbannung." Prof. Kochly says the appearance of the blind old man “hinterlaesst den furchtbarsten Eindruck.” (Eur. Phoen. Einl.) 2Paley calls this a tragic device which was sure to inspire awe and commiseration in the audience, note to line 1539. 301‘. this scene with the episode of Iphis and Evadne in the Supplices (p. 97). 4This ﬁnal scene of the thn., therefore, when viewed in this light and in connection with the Iphis and Evadne episode of the Supplices, is shown to be, not as Aristophanes says, “thrown in to no purpose," 6mm}; (see brrétiemg oi the play), but as purposely introduced to intensify the gloom and woe of the drama. Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 91

In this connection—via, in discussing the use of the old for engender-ing pathos ot’ the highest kind, we may cite the (Eneus. Here old CEneus—once king, but now an outcast, deprived of his empire and reduced to the necessity of tending, unde - an assumed name, the flocks and herds of a rustic prince ——plays the leading role. Many of those traits of character which we have found native to the old—talkativeness (p. 60), suffering of abuse (p. 35), excessive excitability (p. 43), exhortation (p. 1%)), combined with an innate kindness and sense of right (p. Tl)—are the means used in this play (as in the others where the old occur) to draw out the sympathies of the audience for (Eueus and to alienate even a passing pity for Agrius. Nothing could be more touching than the sight of old (Eneus, t'm-merly a king, restless and impatient under the insults with which he is continually alllicted, daily driv- ing, in company with a crowd of clownish rustics, the tlocks of his master to their pasture. Nor can we conceive ol.’ a more pathetic, and yet at the same time a more amusing, picture than this old man protesting that he has not the time to enter into a conversation with the strangers, Diomedes and Sthenelus; yet led on by the talkativeness which the old could not conquer, doing that very thing and explaining at great length the humiliation he daily undergoes in being compelled, among other things, to submit to having his head used as scopus in his master’s game of cottalms. The excessive excitement (Aristophanes parodies it in Acharu. 885 11’.) which the old man displays when told that one of the strangers to whom he is talking is no other than his own g'audsou, who has come to right his wrongs and to restore him his kingdom, together with his immediately lapsing into an extended series of moral reflections and cxhortatious, makes up a scene which for pathos and interest could with dilliculty be surpassed. Add to all this the final scenes when old (litmus—despite what: he had sull’ered because of Agrius, yielding to that other side ol.’ senile nature, kindness, and considerateuess (see page 71)——rel:'uses to permit Diomedes to use excessive cruelty in his punishment, but forces him to be content with the exile of the wicked Agrius. All this, we may well believe, made up a drama which merited the admi 'atiou which Aristophanes, Aristotle (Rhet. 111, 16, 92 The Dramas of Euripides.

7), Plato (Ion 533 (0.), and others attest it received from the ancients.1 The Peleus may also be noted here. This play centers around an old man, Peleus, who has been deprived of his kingdom (by Acastus) and is now an outcast, hiding in a, dark and secluded cave in order to escape further indignities. He himself describes his plight in these words: , 7n\oir7}e, lilomoe, wanL'SOS éo’repnperos wrioxoe, I 8 vocipwn, I I ﬂ, L01 , axonn I e ad); 7)}.LEP 0V: . His chief occupation now is to sun with eage- and restless eye the farthest horizon of the sea in search of some chance mariner who might: be approaching the rocky shore. A pathetic and sorrowful figure truly! After a while a sailor does come, and (as in the (Eneus, p. 01) the old man’s excitement is overpower-1'ug‘l when he ﬁnds that this stranger is his own grandson, Neoptolemus. In the discussion which follows as to the best: means for avenging their enemies the conceit of the old over their greater experience and consequently greater ability to give advice is prominent. The old man chides the cunning plans of Neoptolemus and declares that his greater experience (p. :t!)) demands that he be listened to. This trait, and the somnolency ot‘ the old (p. 32, note 1)., their debility and weakness," are some of the traits of the old which the poet used to make this a pathetic. and distressing play. Hartung, Eurip. Rest, p. 296, says that this tragedy was “especially celebrated among the ancients.”"’

1The outline of the play follows Hartung, Eurip. Rest. 2Frag. Dub. 38, p. 448, Matth. “According to the scholiast, Aristophanes parodies the statement in Nub. 1153. 40f. Frag. Incer. 1066, which Hartung refers to this play and puts into the mouth of Peleus. 51m fact, it is interesting to note that Hartung usually ends his res- toration of those plays of Euripides where old people play the leading or prominent roles with some such statement. The Plisthenes is a case in point. After describing the character of Atreus in this play as “orbatus liberis, privatus conjuge, grandaevus, duplici luctu aﬁlictus, miserrimus,” he almost immediately adds: “praestantiorum numero tragoediarum hoc drama habitum esse," . . . etc. (Vol. I., p. 546.) Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 93

Of. also the Dictys, where the presence of the old man thruout the play, with his philosophy (p. 49), with his kindly sympathy for distress (p. 71), with his irascibility (p. 43), etc., forms a play of: which it is said the personages exhibit a “grav- ity and sublimity worthy of tragedy.”1 Euripides uses the old, not only for the purpose of portraying grief overwhelming and sorrow deep and profound, but also in order to enlist and hold the svmpathy ot’ the audience on whatever side he desired. We may state the proposition thus: Wi-Inxnvna Elilkll’llHCS wax'ren 'ro nxms'r AND HOLD THE stum- an or Tilt} .xumnxen IN FAVOR or ANY cxusn, ma INTRODUCED om) PEOPLE as run cnxnrioxs or ’l‘l[.\’l‘ cwsn. The He 'aclida) and the Supplices serve as excellent: examples of this rule. Thus in the Heraclidzc, no matter what: political purpose“ Euripides had in mind when he wrote this play, his undoubted purpose so far as the action of the play itself is concerned was to draw out as speedily as possible the sympa~ thy of the vivacious audience for the mistreated descendants of Heracles. The audience must espouse the cause of the He 'aclids and must feel supreme aversion to Eurystheus and his -ause.“ To accomplish this purpose Euripides builds up a play whose action revolves around a ﬁery old man who speaks run out of the 1055 lines of the drama, and whose presence and feats are the topic of another one-third. The noble devotion ((3-11) of this old man to his friends (a senile trait, see p. 74) and the violence he sult’ers (Tm—the tendency to sull‘cr which was also a senile trait (p. 35 [hi—in their behalf ﬁrst arouses in the audience the feeling of pity. This is stimulated by the l’ 'ank confession of the chorus that they cannot rest ‘ain their tears of sympathy for the poor old man (127-9).

1Hartung, Vol. I., p. 372. 2Modern scholars differ with respect to this. Hartung (Vol. I., pp. 312-13) thinks that it was intended to teach the Athenians in the time of the Peloponnesian War that a war begun in opposition to unjust demands was a pious and just war, and would be helped and favored by the gods. 3“It was never intended," says Gilbert. Norwood, in the Riddle of the Bacchae (p. 21). “that the audience sympathize for a moment with Eurysthens." 94 The Dramas of Euripides. ,

The feeling of pity for the weak old fellow now once aroused in the audience is skillfully wrought upon and fanned into a flame. Iolaus’ speech (182-231). in which he pitiably exhibits senile excitement and garrulity, his final anxious appeal accompanied by his weird act of crmvning the king as the he were an altar, supplicatingly touching his hands and chin, his wailing request for ‘l’riendship, brotherhood—aye, even for slavery; anything, all things, rather than be sent to Argos—— all this works upon the audience and is well calculated to move the heart to pity. The chorus interprets to us this rising pity by saying (232i : (iSKTeip’ (isofioas‘ redo-36 orhqboptls. drag. Further, his excitement at the promise of safety (lines 303-20; see also p. 57 iii), his deep distress and grief (lines 4.27 til; see also p. 57) at the sudden dashing of his hopes to the ground, his nobility in offering himself for his friends (see p. 74) are some of the traits of the old which Euripides uses to keep alive and to increase the sympathy which, as we have said, he wanted the audience to feel for Iolaus and for the 'ause which he represents. Euripides contrasts in the first hall’ of the play with this poor, weak, old fellow the bold, insolent, and domineering Copreus. throwing thus the attributes of the young out into bold relief against those of the old and producing thereby the inevitable and designed result—sympa thy for the cause the old espouse, hatred and aversion for the cause the young man champions. The poet having thus fully enlisted the sympathies of his. audience on the side of lolaus, his only duty now is to see that that sympathy does not lag, but that it is kept alive and vigor- ous. To do this he further uses the cha 'acterictics of the old— Iolaus boasting of his fidelity to his friends (see p. 74), de- manding arms to tight in their behalf (681-98), his weakness and his great desire to be young and strong (a marked senile t-ait, p. 25 tf.), etc. All these traits of character in old Iolaus make a deep impression on the audience and increase the sympathy which they already feel for him. The chorus reveals this to us, for their words (they are speaking for the audience), Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 95

mi) yuuurtpaxeiv (rip! fiALKL'aV n7. B’d‘ufixar’ édv‘ 013K 307w 677w; 77,8771) Kri'yact miALv afidLs.‘ show. their sorrow at the pathetic sight. The closing scene where Eurystheus stands before the old Alcmene, who, actuated by her deep sense of the justice of her cause (p. 75), exacts from him a full recompense for his ill treatment of her, increases the gloom of the play. and rings the curtain down upon a tragedy where the sympathy of the audience has been wholly and ctmtinuously on the side of Athens and against Argos. The purpose of the Supplices was primarily an encomium of Athens.“ This being so, the greater the sympathy the audience felt for the side which the Athenians espoused and the sooner this syn'ipathy was stimulated, the greater would be the success of the play. ("oi'isequently in this drama, as in the Heraclidzc, Euripides would make use of whatever expedients he considered most ellicacious to draw out the sympathy and partisanship of the audience and to present-in the most favorable light the part Athens had to play. What then is the expedient he adopted? Nothing else than to identify the cause Athens should adopt with old people. and to make the play cen- ter around them till the audience should be fully enlisted on that side. JEthra. the mother of Theseus, the chorus, the Sup- plices themselves. and Adrastus, the leader of the band of suppliants, are all old people who have one and only one part to play in the development: of the plot—to enlist the sympathy

IHeracl. 706—8. 276 dé- (ipr'z/m éymb/uov ’AOerTm (Greek, birdfimg‘. The particular way. however, in which the encomium is worked out has been stated with varying degrees of positiveness by various writers. Giles, Classical Review (Vol. IV., p. 96), thinks the long panegyric of Adrastus (857 ft.) gives the cue and identifies the seven Chieftains with Nicias, Lamachus, etc. Wilamowitz-Moellendorf (Heracles, p. 13) gives as his opinion: “Die Hiketiden sind erhalten in welchem der rat, frieden mit. Sparta, aber anschluss an Argos zu suchen kaum minder hervorstieht als die forderung class Athen einen veaw’ag arpanyyag £17616; erhalte ” u. s. w. Decharme (p. 140), on the other hand, contents himself with saying: “In writing the Suppliants, Euripides has composed a patriotic work which delightfully flattered the national pride." 96 The Dramas of Euripides.

of the audience in their et‘t'ort to gain the help of Athens in recovering the dead chieftains lying around the walls of Thebes. In order to do this the wretched plight of the suppliants must so impress the audience that when Theseus at last yields, with var determined upon it need be, the wretchedness of the suppliants shall justify these heroic measures. Hence the initial scenes introduce the old, who, by their weakness and by their very presence as much as by their words, arouse the sympathies ot’ the audience. First, fEthra. herself a feeble old woman and well calculated to stir the audience to pity (and to admiration, too, tor her noble devotion to the god in whose service she had made the onerous trip to Eleusis, lines '28-30), is touched (34-5) by the pitit‘ul sight: of the old and now childless suppliants. who, falling at her knee around the altar of the god (:43), beg her to interrede for them with her son (60) to help them get back their dead (70). In these earlier scenes of the play Theseus’ hauteur toward the suppliants (the self-sufficiency and strength of youth over against the weakness and wretchedness of age) helps along the poet’s purpose. Theseus’ intlexibleness and indil'lference, and finally his determination to have nothing to do with them (252), his 'alling his mothe' ay'ay (286)—2111 bring out by cont 'ast the utter helplessness of these poor, bereaved, childless. gray-haired mothers. The more indifferent Theseus becomes, the greater the pity felt for the suppliants. He is their only help. As he turns away we feel the despair which settles down upon the women. Our sympathy is with them. We de- spise the self-satisfied and self-righteous king; so that as :Eth a concludes her plea with him to reconsider his decision (3:30 111), we are ourselves entirely won over to their cause. Any lingering suspicions that we should sympathize with The- seus in his resolution not to help is swept away. The case of the sorrowing old suppliants is our case. The words of the chorus at the close of ZEth 'a’: zrgument voice the sentiments of the audience: “0, dearest mine! How excellently thou hast spoken for him and for me!” (332-3.) The poet’s first purpose is accomplished. The audience sym- pathizes with the distressed; they are to be suecored, and Athens thereby will achieve renown. All he needs to do now is Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 97

to see to it that this pity which we feel is not suffered to grow less as the various incidents of the play develop. The uncertainty and fear of the chorus while awaiting the outcome of the battle (603 if), their distress as the corpses are about to be brought in (77S), their antiphonal dirge sung with Adras- tus (800 if), are all scenes which serve admirably to keep alive our sympathies and to render more poignant the grief we feel for them. At last, as the graudspns and aged mothers, overwhelmed with grief, pass off the stage bearing the ashes of their fathers and sons (1167). our conception of the misery— great tho that misery new is——which would have been theirs had not Theseus interfered, is so perfect and complete that we com- prehend by contrast the full import of Tbeseus’ intervention. We laud Athens and her king for the part they have played, and are ready to say with Adrastus (117 64)) :

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EPISODE OF IPHIS AND EVADNE, SUPPLICES 990 FF.

Since Euripides used the old to elicit the pity of the audience and to cause them to espouse any cause desired, we can understand why he introduced in the Supplices the episode of Iphis and Evadne. The drama of the Supplices is one where pity felt for the old is, as we have shown above. the chief expedient used to bring about the end desired, the espousal by the audience of the cause of the Supplices. Hence Euripides in- serts this episode of lphis and Evadne in order to get a cumu- lative ell'ect.1 Old .lphis’ lamentations about the wee of marriage with its attendant loss of children (1087) parallels and intensities the wish of the chorus that: they had never seen the couch of man ( 2:3). lphis’ grief at his desolate home, bereft

101‘. his similar use of (Edipus at the end of the thnissze (1539 ff. See also 1). 90). Decharme (p. 189) calls this episode of Iphis and Evadne ”stirring,” and speaks of it as felicitously “sustaining, by means of bold stage etfeet, the interest of the drama.” Dr. Verrall (Fourr‘ltilays of Euripides, p. 13) speaks in like vein. 98 The Dramas of Euripides.

of son and daughter (1090 it), emphasized the desolation of the home to which the chorus is so soon to go. His excoriation of old age (1108), its worthlessness and its helplessness, ren- ders very dramatic and etfective the utter weakness and decrepitude of the chorus as the bones of its dead are seen approaching (1115). Viewed in this light, this episode of Iphis and Evadne ceases to be an enigma, but serves, by the emphasis which it gives to the pity we feel for the old, to enhance our appreciation of Theseus’ intervention in their behalf; which is but another way of saying that our admiration for Athens is increased—the object the poet set about originally to accomplish.‘L . The Her. Fur. gives us another good illustration of Eurip- ides’ use of: the old to enlist the sympathies of the audience in a certain cause. During the first part of the play the action centers around the delivery of suppliants from death. These suppliants must naturally therefore win our sympathy. As we should expect, so we find them grouped around an old man, Amphitryon2 (supported by a chorus of old men), who remains the central figure of the drama until the need of the play is attained and the audience supports his cause and withdraws all trace of sympathy from Lyons. This result is attained in the usual way. Old Amphitryon is decrepit and useless, so useless as not: to know, so he says, whether he is still to be called a man (11), fleeing for his life and acting as the protector (45) of a defenseless woman and her children (17 iii), in need of all things—food, drink, clothes, and even a bed (51-2)——and utterly triendless (53). Furthermore, the chorus, as it files in (107) on halting step (108; 110), deprecating their flown power and strength (111), intensifies our feeling of depression and pity. All play their part well, for we espouse their cause from the first and loathe Lycus and his

ISee footnote 2, p. 95. 2Lallier (De la Condition de la Femme, p. 211) says of this whole scene: “11 y a une alliance touchante entre la faiblesse de la femme et celle du vieillard." Euripides is fond of such scenes. Besides the ones already noted cf. the Dictys, where Dictys crouches with Danae at the altar of Zeus Herceus, and the Cressae, where the old messenger, Thyes- tes, and the boys ﬂee to the altar to escape Atreus. Dramatic Characteristics of the Old.

haughty, high-handed methods. The sympathy of the audien \ thus acquired is greatly strengthened as the old fellow shows to us those well-defined senile trails of character which we have seen (pp. 1 to 79) the old possess—excitement, love of children (170-189, shown in his desire to defend Hercules from the charge of cowardice), keen sense of justice (217-95), ardent desire for youth (228-35; 268-9), the suffering of abuse (238- 251), etc. Moreover theyigor of the old chorus (252) in refusing to be intimidated by the menaces of the usurper elicits our applause and sympathy. Furthermore Megara’s lengthy discussion (287-811) addressed to Amphitryon keeps the latter before us, identifies her fate with his, and keeps alive within us the pity we feel for their misfortunes. The climax is reached, however, when, after Megara has said farewell to her children, the old man himself garrulously and pathetically bids (p. 58) his friend and the chorus good-by. At this point, when our pity for the plight of the suppliants is at its height, when we hate Lycus intently and feel that any punishment which might come upon him would be richly deserved—a state of mind to which we have been brought by the skillful use of the old—Hercules arrives, saves the suppliants, kills the usurper, and makes the clénouemcut of the first part accord with the state of mind the poet has created within us. The second half of the play, which is more or less loosely connected with the first half,1 has for its possible object the glorification of Athens. Tho Hercules is the central figure here, and tho he is already in the good graces of the audience because of the action of the first part, yet we are never permitted to lose sight of the fact that he is the son of Amphit- ryon and that his distress (and his cause) is that also of the

1Decharme (p. 226) thinks the disjointed nature of the play is one of appearances only; for “in spite of appearances," he says, “there does exist in this tragedy a unity of high order.” This unity is . . . “Hercules, . . . the mighty ﬁgure . . . that dominates the whole play." Patiu (Vol. 3, p. 208) took this position ﬁfty years before Decharme. He says the tragedy consists “(les faits independents l’un et l'autre, mais que le poete, qui les rapproche, ramene, par 1e contraste meme, a l’unite.” Wilamowitz—Moellendorfi’ (Hen, Vol. I., p. 343) thinks, on the other hand, that the drama is a subjective expression of Euripides' mentivity. 100 The Dramas of Euripides.

old man, Amphitryon. For there is always some reference ever and again made to him and Megara (003, 903, 1002, 1011, 1165, etc.) 3 or he is himself introduced upon the stage to carry on the dismal lamentations for the sorrows which had come upon him (1039-41 if), or to evince touching solicitude and anxiety for his son (1042 iii, 1072-7, 1111-45, etc.). By these means the poet is aided in sustaining the sympathy which the audience has felt for Hercules from his ﬁrst entrance upon the stage. At the end of the play Hercules details to Amphitryon the duty of burying the dead children.1 So that the play actually closes with our sympathies rather with the old man than with Hercules, for the latter goes saved to Athens, whereas the old man is enjoined to live in Thebes, which is conceded to be a diliicult and sad fate (1365). And the curtain falls upon the lone old man doomed to sad duties (1420) and to solitude unbroken, at least for a time. That the old are used by Euripides to gain or maintain the sympathy of the audience to ' a certain cause is seen again in the Andromache. Andromache, now the slave of Neoptolemus, hated and hounded by Hermione, has hidden her son, Molossus, and taken refuge herself at the altar of Thetis. She is, however, persuaded by craft and deceit to leave the altar, and she and her son, whose hiding place has been discovered, are thus wholly in the power of the revenget'ul Hermione (and Mene- laus). Just as they are being led away to death and just as we feel that there must be some speedy help if a great calamity is to be averted, old Peleus comes panting and putting in (546) to espouse their cause and to save them. The entrance upon the stage of Peleus, with his senile attributes of loquacity, excitability, pretended strength, adnmnitims, and philosophy.2 adds pathos to the play and intensiﬁes our partisan sentiments. The old man’s tottering presence, his grief, his reference to himself (614) as one of the disconsolate fathers whom the Trojan War has left desolate make the scene one of overwhelming pathos and deepen the pity we have previously felt for Andromache’s position. When the old man leaves the

10f. this scene with the strikingly similar one in the Tro., where Hecuba is left to bury Astyanax (p. 88). 2For all these personal traits, see page 24 ff. Dramatic Chmucteristics of the Old. 101 stage, our feeling for him and for Andromache is one of real distress. The unexpected turn of affairs by the arrival of Thetis and her promise of immortality to Peleus (1253-6) bring us a feeling of actual relief. Her exhortation to him, mama 8E Adm]; (1270), is addressed to the audience as veil as to him. The ending of the Andromache reminds us of the Alcmene, in which play Euripides makes his usual use of the old either to portray deep pathos or to arouse the sympathies of the audience for a given cause. In this play the senile traits of close friendship for friends (p. "1, note 3; p. 72, note 1), of weakness (p. :38), love of peace (p. 73), etc., are ﬁnely contrasted with the raslmess and venturesomeness of youth. Old Alcmene and Licymnius, than whom no more interesting characters are found anywhere in our poet, by their mildness and mutual kindness completely win the sympathy of the audience for their éause, which we feel (in spite of ’l‘lepolemus) is that also of the Heraclids; so that when the murder of Licymnius is reported and ClTlepolemus is put on trial for his life, we feel little, if any, sympathy for him in the distressing situation in which he ﬁnds himself (Frag. 08). We rather rejoice at the sentence of exile which. is pronounced against: him, and the pathetic words,

m’irdp 57’ £9 ‘1’6501! L'gcrTL (idfvl/AEI'Os / iii/\yea wa’o'xmv, and his subsequent: shipwreck affect us but little. On the other hand, the (lying Alcmene, overwhelmed with sorrow, deprived of her loving and beloved brother, touches us profoundly. We welcome her translation to the Elysian Fields and to the bosom of Rhadamantlms as a well-merited reward after her great suffering. In the Ion we see clearly again the use Euripides made of the old in his dramas. The ﬁrst 700 lines of the play have introduced us to the characters of the drama. Xuthus and his wife, Creusa, have come to the oracle to ask the god for children, to share the same blessed promise or to endure the same disappointment. Now, however, quite unexpectedly Xu- thus has received a son whom he thinks it best, for the sake of prudence, to introduce into Athens under an assumed name 102 ' The Dramas of Euripides.

(054-07), intending to seize a favorable Opportunity (should one present itself) to break to his trusting wife the fatal news that Ion is his son and heir by a former illicit love (059, 545- 55). He charges the chorus on pain of death to breathe no word of this to his wife (006-7). They, however, make up their minds to tell Creusa the entire stor Y (604-712) of Xuthus’ and Ion’s fathership and sonship and of her excessive wretchedness. It is at this juncture when Creusa is to become the central personage of the play, and when it is desired that all our sympathies be swung, at least for a time, entirely from Xuthus and from Ion to Creusa and her wrong, that the tottering old servant of the now deceased Erectheus comes hobbling on the stage as the close ally and ardent supporter of her from whom is so soon to be wrung those exquisitely disconsolate lines (865- .0). The old man’s weakness (73., 745), his sympathy with Creusa’s plight, his words of comfort (707) when she hears the' crushing news, his fertility in plans, and his stanch advocacy of her cause (080, 070-3, 1020, etc.) effect the usual result. Xuthus and Ion, whom we once admired, are put under the ban, so to speak, and Creusa has our whole sympathy. The old man here, as in other plays, fulﬁlls his dramatic purpose and causes us to make his cause our cause. In the Orcstes we see again the dramatic purpose of the old. Because of the touching scenes1 of the first 470 lines—the sis- terly affection and solicitude of Electra for Orcstes—we are inclined to forget Orestes’ heinous guilt of matricide and‘ to give him our unrestricted sympathy in his deep affliction. Orcstes, however, is an outcast (:43 ), hated by the gods (531), a murderer, and it is not the poet’s purpose that we should ' sympathize with him too much. It is at this juncture that Tyndareus, a venerable man ( 518), is introduced, led and supported by his attendants. His venerable aspect itself commands our attention, and we wonder what side he will espouse.

1And yet Patiu (Vol. III., p. 43) ﬁnds in these opening scenes (note that young characters only play the miles) so much that is reprehen- sible that he asks; “Ne détournent-elles pas le spectateur des émo- tions véritables du drame, de celles qu’il avalt déja fait naitre et qu’il promettait?” Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 103

It is not too much to say that we firmly believe that be has come to help Ores tes (so strongly are our sympathies with him), and we are surprised to find the trend of Tyndareus’ remarks to be against Orcstes. At first we are unsympathetic with the stand Tyndareus has taken. It is not long, however, before his words command our closest attention. His stanch advocacy of law (5312-36), his conception of the fundamental principles in the ease (5'23), and the diret’ul elfects of illegal acts (524—5), even it they are animated by a kindly feeling of kinship (486), convince us that our first impulse toward unrestricted sympathy with Orestes is wrong, and that, tho Orcstes is unfortunate and in so far as that goes worthy of our sympathy, yet the strict justice of the case demands that we put ourselves on the side of Tyndareus. .letenmestra really deserved death; yet Orcstes. her son, was not the proper instrument of punishment (538-9). It is in this as in other plays: The dramatic purpose of the old is to guide and deepen the sympathies of the audience. When those sympathies are going wrong, as here, the introduction of an old character, displaying some1 if not all the traits of the old, turns them from the wrong into the right channel. Menelaus, at any 'ate, the at first an ardent champion of Orcstes (48:3, etc.) , when once set right by Tyn- dareus, maintains his position thruout; so that at the very end of the play, even when threatened by Orcstes with the death of his daughter, Hermione (1000), unless he persuades the Argives to grant him his life (1011), he refuses to inter-cede for him, but urges instead the Argives to rise against the matricide who is seeking to force them to ignore law and right (1621. 4). If Apollo had not intervened to clear himself and to arrest the judgment, the doom ot' Orcstes would have met (solely because at Tyndareus’ attitude) with our approval. We justify his escape from punishment only because of the fact that it was the evident will of heaven. In the satyric drama, the Cyclops, is seen the same expedient ~—the old—to provoke the sympathies of the audience. It is not necessary for us to decide whether the object of satyric

1Patiu (Vol. III.) speaks with respect to Tyndareus of la colere et la redite de la vieillesse (see p. 44). 104 The Dramas of Euripides.

plays was, as Paley maintains,1 antiquarian—that is, to retain “in the best days of the Athenian stage types of the true an- cient rpvyoSZa, the vintage song out of which the dithyrambic element, of tragedy was developed"—or whether it was, as Hor- ace" says, simply to give amusement. The main point, for us is that: Euripides wanted to provoke as quickly as possible (satyric plays were short) the emotions of his audience, whether those emotions were serio-sympathetic ( ’aley) 0r comico- sympathetic (Ho 'ace), and he does this here as in his other plays by intrmlucing an old man, Silenus, and making him, with the weakness and foibles of old age, the leading cha 'acter. Thruout the play he skillfully uses this old man and his aged characteristics to further the ends of the drama. The old fellow’s desire to appear etmrageous, his natural timidity (see p. 31), his quick wit in finding excuses, and the funny scene in lines 540-8!) (see p. fi-l ff.) are all touches tending to draw out our serio or comico sympathy. Possibly, however, the two traits of the old which are used with most telling effect in this play are: (a) Their religiosity—4. 0., their natural and abiding belief in the gods, and their persistency in calling upon them. (7)) Their amusing fertility in devising ways and means to extricate themselves from embar 'assing predicaments. As we pointed out on page S), in the mouth of no other than an old character would Silenus’ oath (202-7) be half so comic or pathetic, nor would those monstrous lies ("332-40) and the comic antics (540-80), if assigned to any other actor, be nearly so effective. We laugh at the old fellow, yet there is not lacking

1V0]. III., p. 553, of his Euripides. 2A. P. 220-4. Patin (Vol. III., p. 446) sides with Horace, and says satyric dramas were “destinés . . . nniquement a amuser, a égayer l’esprit.” A little later on he says: “Les catastrOphes funestres, sanc- lantes meme échappaient an pathétiqne, a la pitié, n’excitaient que des rls.” Also Nauek (Vol. III., p. 06), quoting Diomedes. says: “Latina Atellana. a Graeca satyrica differt, quad in satyriea t‘ere satyrorum personae inducuntur ant si quae sunt ridiculae similes satyris, Auto- lyeus, Busiris." Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 105 - a decided feeling of pity at his present degraded and humili- ating position in the service of the Cyclops.1 '[11 the Bacchae, since the purpose of the play is, in the light of modern criticism, so in doubt,2 it is difficult to affirm with definiteness just what cause the poet intended the audience finally to espouse. This much, however, may be said: “In the Bacchae, as sometimes elsewhere, the poet has made his characters plead two contradictory causes—that of mysticism and that of reason. It is the cause of mysticism which is developed at greater length and with greater force.”3 It is obvious, therefore, that the poet would want his audience, at first at any rate, to espouse the cause of mysticism" inasmuch as he developed that cause at a “greater length and with greater force.” In other words, he wants the audience, at first at any rate, to espouse the cause of Dionysus,” and he sets about to effect his purpose in the usual way. He introduces two old men, Tire- sias and Cadmus, full of dignity, pious devotion, and venerable- ness, yet wit‘hal exhibiting the frailties of the aged: loquacity, helplessness (364-5, 198, 211), shrewdness (333), timidity (337

lPatin, remarking along this line, says (p. 465): “C’est merveille de voir . . . comme s’entrelacent habilement, dans cette petite piece, les emotions diverses de la comédie et de la tragédie.” 2“The solutions which have been offered have been set out with doubts and reservations; naturally, for wherever we turn we seem to see arguments on both sides placed in perplexing proximity. On the one hand we have the supposition [supported by Naegelsbach, Paley, Pohle, Weeklein, Bernhardy, K. D. Mueller, Berlage, and Gomperz] that the poet is frankly going back on the opinions of a lifetime and is reeanting in favor of the popular faith; on the other, the theory [supported by Roux, Patin, Bruhn, and Decharme] that the Baccha: is a polemic against that faith." (Gilbert Norwood, in The Riddle ot‘ the Bacclne, p. 81.) ==Decharme. p. 64. 4If Euripides desires, as has been maintained (Norwood, Riddle ot‘ the Bacchze), to vilify Dionysus and to make Pentheus the hero of the play, he took a very roundabout and doubtful ivay to accomplish his purpose. Mr. Norwood, who advocates this view himself, says: “We need not assume that the audience could understand . . . the Bacchze . . . at one sitting" (Riddle of the Bacchze, p. 131). r'Gilbert Murray, in his introductory essay (p. liv.) to his translation of some of the plays of Euripides, boldly declares: “The sympathies of the audience are with Dionysus while he is being persecuted.” 106 The Dreams of Euripides.

ﬂ’.)——traits which, when combined with the nobler ones mentioned above, are especially adapted, as we have shown, to work upon the emotions of the audience. These two old men serve in excellent wise their purpose of enlisting the sympathies of the audience for the cause which they represent and of showing up the hauteur ot' Pentheus. Our sense of propriety and ﬁtness is rudely jarred by the young1 king’s roughness and coarseness (343-6), by his pettiness (346-51) , and by his brutality (352-7), so that we are quite ready to echo the sentiments of the chorus in their ode on chastity of speech and life (370-430). The old men have served their purpose. From now on we seldom, if ever, waver” in our feeling that such a character as Pentheus has shown himself to be must eventually meet with a terrible fate. Our sympathies at this juncture of the play are completely alienated from Pentheus and centered upon the cause of Cadmus and Tiresias. Another interesting use of the old is seen in the apparently chance reference to Cadmus by the messenger in lines 1025-8. The story the messenger has to tell is one of horror and con- cerns Pentheus entirely. The whirling scenes thru which we have been hurried since Tiresias and Cadmus were last on the stage have tended possibly to lessen our sympathy for the cause of the old men. We may be inclined even to pity Pentheus for his present: plight. In order, however, that by no possible ' chance our symmthies may be awakened for the horrible fate of Pentheus, our minds are made to revert, by the messenger’s reference, to Cadmus and his sorrow (1024-8), to those preceding scenes (17 0-431) where the nobility and weakness inherent in the 'old men had entirely enlisted our sympathies. The words of the messenger touch the chord of our emotions and set them vibrating once more. We are in no danger now of feeling pity for Pentheus, no matter what the messenger may say his doom

101?. lines 1184-7. ' 21 feel that this is true, the new theory of the Bacchae to the contrary notwithstanding. Weekleln, quoted by Norwood (Riddle of the Bac- chae, p. 63), voices, I am sure, the feeling of the majority of readers and students when he says of Pentheus: “Er ist ein halter Verstandes- mensch und seichtes Freigeist, ein gottloser Rationalist, ein Erdge- borner u. s. W.” Drmnatie Oluu‘acteristics of the Old. 107

has been. The old men have thus again played their rOIe of gaining and holding our sympathies for the cause they represent. Also later, when we are overcome by the picture of distress and utter helplessness which Cadmus brings before us by his words (1302-24) on the defenselessness of his old age, now that Pentheus is dead, and when we are liable possibly to forget, because of his former kindness to Cadmus, Pentheus’ sacrilege and to pity his fate, we are recalled to a true view of the situation by the words of the chorus (15328-9) : “It is for thee, O Cadmus, that we‘grieve. This fellow has met a. worthy fate. For thee we grieve ; we grieve for thee.” Also in the closing scenes of the drama the' same use is made of the old. The exile ot' Cadmus, which is worse than death itself (1352-60), his overwhelming sorrow for his children (1372), and his own firm trust in the god in spite of what he has suffered render more dramatic and forceful Agave’s repudiation of the Bacchic rites (1381-7) ; so that if the poet’s purpose in this part of the play was in reality to condemn the Bacchic religion—at least in partl—the presence of the old man with his allliction and his weaki'iess helped, as the presence of the old always did, the poet to accomplish his object; for the present and evident distress of her father—the result of the same influence which caused Agave to murder her son—would go far to justify in the minds of the audience Agave’s harsh and bitter repudiation of the fliacchic worship. If, on the other hand, Euripides’ object was to praise2 Dionysus and his rites, the presence of the old man with his implicit and abiding faith (1326-7, 1249-50), unshaken by the dire calamities which have befalleu him, would accomplish his purpose in the best possible way. In the Alcestis old Pheres plays the usual senile part. A selfish old man himself, he brings out the still greater selfishness of Admetus.- The scene beginning with line 614 between the two crystallizes the rising animositya which the audience has felt for Admetus and which has been kept from crystallizing

1Norwood, Riddle of the Bacchze, p. 120. 250 Dr. Kraus in his work, Euripides, ein Bekehrter Rationalist? 30f. 197, 240-3, 210. 108 The Dramas of Euripides.

before only by the hospitality (faltering and hesitating to be sure, but hospitality notwithstanding) which he displays to ward Hercules. Thus the nobility of Alcestis, one of the things, possibly the chief thing, the poet had in mind to portray by the play, is greatly enhanced by cont 'ast with the manifest selﬁsh- ness and meanness of the man and his family1 for whom she is dying. The poet is thus seen again to use the old to bring out those phases of his drama which he desires to emphasize and which he wants the audience to sympathize with. In fact, so important is the function of old Pheres along this line that at least one writer thinks that the scene in which he performs for the first time discloses beyond peradventure the poet’s purpose in the play.2 The principles stated on page 85 and on page {iii—vim, that Euripides used the old (a) to engender a feeling of deep pity in his audience, and (b) to enlist their sympathies in be half of any cause—are well illustrated negatively by a study of those plays such as Helen, the Medea, the Electra," the Rhesus,

lAlong this line Patiu says (Vol. III., p. 15): “Une des choses qu’ Euripide s’est le plus attache a faire ressortir dans sa piece, c’est la contraste du dévouement d’Alceste, avec l‘insensibilité des parents d'Ad- mete, qui, si pres de la morte, n’ont pas voulu mourir pour Ieur fils.” =Dr. Verrall, Euripides: The Rationalist. p. 59. To be sure, Dr. Ver- rall does not think the nobility of Alcestis nor yet the selfishness of Admetus the chief purpose of the play. He grants tho that they are strong secondary objects (p. 111). “The Defeat of Death” (p. 113) is the moral for which he is contending, and he boldly avers (p. 120) that the Alcestis as a whole is a “flawless masterpiece of wit." “Decharme says of the Electra. (p. 241): “It is one of the poorest of his extant plays.” And Patiu (Vol. IL, p. 22.1) says: “Le jugement des critiques qui s’en sont oecupés, . . . 1a présente, malgré 1e merite des details et (in style, comme une (les plus imparfaites productions de son auteur.” The Orcstes is likewise criticized, even being assigned to the rank of a satyr play, Prinz (quoted by Decharme, p. 258). This is due, however, to the unfortunate ending of which Patiu speaks in no uncertain terms (Vol. III., p. 64): “101 (1048) star-retent les mérites de cette tragédie, commencée avec génie, mais bien médioeremeut ter- minée.” gain (p. 65): “En vain Euripide cherche a relever ce qui n’a aucune grandeur.” It is interesting to note that for all those parts of the drama which lead up to or describe the appearance of Tyndareus, Patiu has nothing but praise, unconsciously emphasizing thereby our thesis that the old lend interest and direction to a play. (See pp. 102-3.) Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 109

the Taurian Iphigenia,1 and even the Alcestis, where the old have only a subordinate part to play and where their appearance on the stage is reduced to a minimum. In none of these plays do we ﬁnd the intense pathos2 and heart-reading distress which we ﬁnd in those plays where old people are the chief actors—c. 9., in the Treades, Supplices, Phoenissze, etc. In fact, with respect to some of them, the Helen,3 for example, it is hardly too much to say that, as we read, the emotion we feel is more like that which comedy (not tragedy) excites. Now and then, however, there is found a scene in these dramas when an old man or woman becomes the leading character for the time. Such a scene is always ail'ecting, and moves the heart of the audience to a feeling of compassion and draws out their sympathy for that particular phase of the action which the old character happens to represent. A case“ in point is found in

IWeil (Sept Trag, p. 438) says of the I. T.: “Toute fois il (le spectateur) prevoit au fond que tout s‘eelaircira, i1 sait que le poe‘te se joue a la fois de ses personnages et de son public, il prend plaisir a voir le dénouement inevitable tant de fois imminent, et tant de fois éludé, il jouit enﬁn déliciensemente d’une emotion qui n‘a rien de violent, rien de sérieux, et qui n’en est pas moins reele . . . Le poe‘te plus tragique n‘y a pas fait usage de toute sa force.” 2Of course it is not denied that some of these dramas contain some very effective scenes—the sacrifice of Iphigenia, for example, in the I. A.; the recognition scene in the I. T., etc. There are interest and excitement in these scenes, but little, it' any, excessive pathos. 3“The almost total lack of tragic grimness in this play has induced Dr. Verrall to regard the whole as an intentional burlesque,” says Gil- bert Norwood, in The Riddle of the Bacchae (p. 149). And Dr. Verrall himself says: “The pathos (of this play) smiles, . . . and of horror or of tragic pity not the faintest trace whatever. The whole piece imi- tates comedy closely.” (Four Plays of Euripides, p. 88. So also Decharme, p. 248.) mi. also the scene in the Alcestis between Pheres and Admetus, p. 107. The scene in the Andromache where Peleus performs might also be cited here. For tho this scene does draw out our sympathies for Andromache and her cause thruout the play (see p. 100), it probably is better considered—in View of the acknowledged “episodic” nature of the play—as itself an episode. In this connection note again the episode of lphis and Evadne in the Supplices (see p. 97). The- scene in the Electra, when the old man brings the provision for the entertainment of the strangers and subsequently recognizes Orcstes, might also be compared here. The old fellow‘s kindness, weakness, 110 The Dramas of Euripides.

the Medea. The events of this play as they come before us cast but little real gloom upon us; and certainly no feeling of intense sorrow, no heart-reading sympathy for the actors, is awakened within us. We feel anger and resentment at Jason, a sense of justice at Medea’s revenge, but no great pity1 or overwhelming grief.2 Toward the end of the play, however, in the speech of the messenger (1136-1230) the mention of the old father of Creusa and the description of his lamentations at the death of his daughter (1200-10), his desire to die with her, his frantic but futile ell’orts to tear himself away from the tenacious clutch of the medicated ﬂesh (1211-11), his gradually weakening ef- forts, and at last his death greatly increase the gloom and

shrewdness, etc., add great interest to this particular scene. The scene in the Cresphontes where the old internuntius prevents Merope from slaying her son might also be cited. The whole theater was in intense excitement lest the old man, who, for the moment, becomes the pivot of the action, should be, because of his slow movements, too late to arrest the blow. (See Plutarch T.. 11, 998, E.) And Aristotle praises the scene as especially fine (Poet., c. 14, 9). Another illustration may be taken from the Antiope. The activity of the old pedagogue in the latter part of the play, his pity for Antiope (See p. 71), and his final rescue of her, by his good advice, from death made a ' very impressive ending of the play and contributed undoubtedly no little to the celebrity of this play in antiquity. Propertius, Pacuvius, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Plato all admired the play excessively, quoted from it, or copied it. It even gave a proverb to the language. Cf. Hartung, Vol. IL, 1). 429. The Protesilaus also may be cited. The excitement of old Acastus when he thinks that his old age is to be spent in solitude, deprived of his daughter, his argument with Pro- tesilaus, his solicitude for his daughter, and his final lamentations for her untimely death and for his own solitude, all go far to overshadow the central fact of the play—the touching devotion of Protesilaus and Laodamia for each other. 1So Thomas Miller (Euripides Rhetoricus, p. 71): “Homlnem (Jasonem) non miseramur: potius aspernamur.” 2A partial exception to this statement might be made in favor of the prologue. The first Greek argument says: ézutvsirm as 7; sidfluli/ did 16 m/Jhyuza‘ig c’z’rau é'zsw. It is interesting to note that the old nurse and the old pedagogue are the personages of this part. Even if the praise referred to has relation to the structure and content of the prologue, it may well be that the appearance of these old people on the stage was largely—even tho unrecognized at the time—instrumental in evoking it. Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 111

grimness 0f the death scene. It is truly a rodewiy Saxptiow't ovaqbopa’. (1221), made more so, as the narrative implies, because the old man also suffers (1220-1) :

Keirrat 8E veroi #0:? 're Kai ye’pwu 71'de we’Aas.

EXCURSUS ON THE TIME IMPLIED IN TO I‘HPAS.

In the preceding discussion on the traits of the old I have made use of those characters only to which Euripides himself applies some of the following terms :1 npéafivs‘ (and its derivatives, wpeafiliflys, wpsofi’iirepos, K-rA), ye’paw, ypafis (and its derivatives, ’ypaia, KTA), 'yfipas (and Us derivatives, 777pcio'Kow, K'r/\) , 'ycpatds or yiypato's, wahaio’e. etc. Tho there are (a few) others of his characters who, because of their marked senile traitsi—loquacity, etc—were evidently intended by Euripides to be (and they were) represented upon the stage as old péople, yet, because they do not happen to be specifically denominated by any one of the above words, '1 have not ventured—tho fully persuaded in my own mind that they are old people—to use them as examples in my discussion of the old. With respect to the various terms for “old” above mentioned, it is interesting to observe that Euripides used them apparently without any discriminating sense as to their liner shades of meaning ( if they had any). ye’pmv and wpe’oBve are for him in- terchangeable and virtually equivalent. He did not seem to discriminate between the words, tho Ammonius,“ quoting" Aris- tophanes ol' Byzantium, in his wept diloaaaiae 'f/z‘ttKLtiiV, says that ye’pmu and wpéaflus and the various words for old age are differ-

1The only exceptions are Adrastus in the Supplices (and he is called vroiliég) and the Hepdmu in the Hippolytus. This latter by implication plainly calls himself a yépov (of. line 114). A further exception should be made, perhaps, in the case of the fragments. Where I have used the plot of the lost dramas, I have followed Hartung and have used his “senes.” EThe Phrygian slave in the Orestes (1368 ft‘.), for example. In fact, Paley and other commentators speak of him as old. ”De Differentia Vocabulorum, p. 36 (Valckenaer). 4Valckenaer ad Ammon., Vol. I., Chap. XH., Sec. 50. 112 The Dramas of Euripides.

ent.1 For Euripides, however, as l have said, ys’pwu and wpéafivs are the same. For example, in the Ion, Creusa calls the pedagogne (725) wpe’afi'v. in line 804 the chorus call him ye’pov. The same term is used in 03‘ . 907. and 009. In 1171, 1211, and 1214, however, the old man is called wps'afiv. 1n the I. A., Agamemnon (line 1) uses the word wpéaflu and (line 17) ye’pov in addressing the same old man. Both ye’pmu and wpe’afive, therefore, were thot of by our poet as being that period of life which the Greeks called by the general term yfipaq. The question which now natu 'ally follows is: At what time did a man or a woman enter the period of life called yfipas? In other words, when did yfipas begin? The etymology of yfipa; is given2 as twofold: ((l) yfipas 'rrapa To ys’pas. 3 mmaivet rip! ”Id/V- (b ‘) Vii/30.9 wapa 1'5 (is yfiv é'ppew, To e'yyi); cit/at gave/iron, i) sis 777:! 6pu'3V Kai ,3Ae'7rwr." iiltymologically, therefore, old age was incipient either, (a) When one achieves renown and is heralded as “great,” or (b) When one’s physical forces begin to fail. Now, either of these two circumstances will occur to different men at different times. One man will become great, in fact so great as to be the conqueror ol’ the world, before he is much past 30, while another will achieve much less renown in three times that length of time. Again, one man will become en- feeblcd—by his excesses or by natural causes—much sooner than another. The time, exact: time, when old age may be said to begin becomes, therefore, a dillicult matter to fix. And this difficulty the ancients themselves felt very keenly, for when trying to define the initial period of old age, they range all the way from :55" to ‘70," and even then they are not certain of their conclusions.

lyépiw K!iZ7.'pE0/i1;§ . . . dradépst. . . . Ptolemwus Ascalonita (quoted by Fabricius, Vol. VI., p. 162, Harles’ Edition) uses exactly the same words. 2Sturgius Etymologicum Graecae Linguae. 30f course it is well understood that these etymologies have no scientiﬁc value for modern critical scholarship. They are used here merely to enable us to arrive at the conception which the Greeks had of the word yijpag. Unlins Pollux, Onomasticon, Book 11., 1, 4. “Aristotle, Polit., Vol. VII., 16, 3. The Greek of these two passages is found on the following pages. ' Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 113

An interesting illustration of this uncertainty occurs in Hippocrates. in one place he says: émut €va fialm’ac . . . Em; (7'; rod yi/pws) duo TpLaKom-oii 7T6/Iu7l'TOv 3w; Terrapaxoorofi Sen-répov' éflfidnn (1‘1 1'1); wpeafiu'rfi-ros) d-m‘) Terrapaxoomfi Setvrépov Ems 7031' rerrapaxovmewe’a.‘ In another place he says of the same ages: wpeaflérrlg 3’ dxpL wern’yxov'ra $5. 6’; 7?: éwrdms 6Kru'). 75 8’ évrévflev

YEIPUN’.: In the first quotation yfipac begins at 35 and precedes 77pm"- ,Burt/s, which begins at 42 and extends to 4!), whereas in the latter passage rpeafiurfis extends to 56, at which time yfipae begins. Philo, however (basing his argument, on Solon Frag. 27, which he quotes entire), seems inclined to push the period of yfipus still further forward than 56. He says“ that there are ten periods of seven years each in a man’s life. After describing what happens in the first seven é7r'raen'at, he says: 6y86y ( I7. 0., from 49 to 56) 8% 1'] EV éKa‘re’pry (mp Kai Ao'ytp) radium; ' Kurd 3% Tip! 6'11di (1.0., from 56 to 63) e'memeia Kat 7112916777; 115V wafla'iv ént wke’ov fluepuflévrmv' Karo. 3% 7371/ 851(di (1.0., from (53 to 70) 701'} Btov TO \ EUKTaLOV 3 - Tahoe, I e-rL ll raw ~ opyavmwv ’ ~ [1.6va -' (rvrw'nme-wv. I (In/\et - yap \ 1'0 \ ' ,uakpov yfipas Exaa'rov irn-oo'KEMCew Kai uapatpei'aaat. That is, Old age, if it is based upon weakness (and Philo obviously so based it), begins about ((55 or) 70. This corresponds closely to Aris- totle’s conception. For in speaking of the power of procrea- tion he says" 75 réAos 77'): yerm’prems dv8pdm is at the farthest 70. And Plato had the same idea, for he says” that up to 50 a man is at his best both in body and mind (amt, cashew; 76 ml (ppm/7’]- 0611);), so that old age would not begin for 10 or 15 years from that time. Old age was, however, to the Greeks, not so much a time as a condition—a fact more or less clearly implied on page 112 in the etymology of yfipas. Pollux“ clearly shows this

1Quoted by Julius Pollux, Onomasticon, Book II., 1, 4. 2Quoted by Philo Judaeus, De Oriﬁcio Mundi, Sec. 36, M. “De Oriﬁcio Mundi, Sec. 35, M. AtPolitn VII., 16. 3. 5Repub., Book V., 460. 00nomasticon, Book II., 11, 21. 8 114 The Dramas of Euripides.

when he says: eim (i. e., from the age of dvfip) eis yfipas 7rp0xw- pair, Aevkalveoflat rip! rpt’xa, deaTu'Js é’xew. That is, Old age is a time of whitened locks and weakened bodies (not necessarily wcah bodies) ; and since Greek tendencies were strongly conservative with respect to entrusting responsible positions to younger men, the two ctyn'iologies given above—that from ye’pa; and that from els 7771’ é’ppen_virtually converged into the following formula:

I A I \ I 3 H II TO ynpa9=A¢vKava6aL 717V 1",)an aKpa'rwg EXGLV-

And this is the conception—viz., that old age is a state rather than a time—which Euripides had; furthermore he acted upon this comteption. For when a person exhibited such and such t'rai ts of cha 'acter, he belonged to such and such a class, no matter what his age. 'l‘llus ’l‘hesens in the Hippolytus is a ’ye’pmv in the estimation of Euripides, tho he does not call him so in so many words.1 He undoubtedly was so represented upon the stage. However. if we prefer figures, since white hai ‘ and weakened bodies are not likely (tho they are, to be sure, possible)2 in the ordinary course of nature to appear before 65 or 70, we can (if we will) ﬁx these points of time as in a general way mark-

1Theseus exhibits among other traits these well-defined ones: (a) Religiosity. When we first, hear of him he is off on a, flan/lie (281. Ct. 806, etc.). He turns instinctively to the gods for help in his vengeance (887 ff.). (1)) Excitability. This is shown in the scene with his son and in the min/mm ab initio (811 ll’.). Note also the repetition 877, 879, 830, etc.). (0) Fondness of gnomic utterance (916-20,.925-30, 936 113.). 2This possibility is the justification (I suppose) which Hippocrates (see p. 113) had for fixing the time when a. man was a ya’pov at. from 35 to 42. C. F. Hermann (Archiv fuer Philologie und Paedagogik, XII. [1846]. p. 327) argues, however, that wpmfivnig began before 57, and quotes Cicero ad Att. VI., 6: “W0 dieser im J. 50 a Chr., als er noch nicht 57 Jahre zaehlt, von dem Entschlusse, statt seines Bruders seinem Quaestor Coelins den Oberbefehl in der Provinz zu hinterlassen schreibt: hoe melins et huius rel plura exempla, senectuti quidem nostrae profecto aptius.” It is to be noted, however, that Hermann distinguishes between misafibmg and )‘K‘pwv, a thing Euripides dirl not do; for Hermann says, quoting Philo (see note 2, p. 113): rd 6’ érrefil/ev (i. e., new) 777;: upset/30177101) yépwu. Dramatic Characteristics of the Old. 115

ing the terminus post grew», so to speak, of the old in Eurip- ides.1 This much for men. For women the following: They matured earlier. Plato" marries them at. from 16 to 20, and men at from 30 to 235. Aristotle“ declares that the farthest limit of fecundity is of). immediately thereafter (the cessa- tion of fecundity). if not somewhat, earlier, we would expect the Auxatvwfiut 7";Il’ rpixa period. For a woman, therefore, We may set the r?) Te’Aos n7; yarn/firm»; (Aristotle) as the beginning of y'fipas‘. And this Paley does; for he says:" “By yfipae, applied to women, the Greeks only meant the age when she ceased to bear children." That is 'yflpas‘ for a woman, gene rally speaking, began about 55 or (it). In conclusion we must consider the old of Enripides’ stage as ranting between the age of 55 (for Women) and ($5 (for men) and the utmost limits of the c’o'xa'ror yfipa; of the lexicographers. Sonic—for example, Adrastus in the Supplices—are but beginning the period of yfipae; while others—for example, Hellen in the .lielanimie—have advanced far along the road.

IWilamowitz-Moellendorff, in his Heracles (p. 343, Vol. I.), says: "Man kann das yﬁpay vor dem sechzigsten Jahre unmoeglich beginnen lassen." He does not, however, state any reasons for the “unmoeglich.” 2Laws, 785 B. “Polit. VII., 16, 3. 'INote to Ion, line 700.